Is cold calling still legal?

IvaBigWun

I just got a call from an Apu soundalike (at first I thought it was a windup!) asking me if Id be interested in Telecommunications of some sort. I made my excuses after listening for three seconds and hung up. I thought this kida thing was illegal now?

dlofnep

I don't remember reading that telemarketing was banned. I don't think it was. if you think its bad here, you should see it over in the states. When I lived there, we had to change our number it was so bad. Every 15 minutes you'd get a call from one. So annoying. Sometimes we'd tear the head off them on the phone and other times we'd prank them as apunishment for their lame antics.

Anyways, it should be banned.

whiskeyman

Only if you're on the opt-out list.
http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2005/09/04/story7647.asp
some info in that article and:
http://www.dataprotection.ie/viewdoc.asp?Docid=281&Catid=66&StartDate=1+January+2005&m=n
http://www.enn.ie/send.html?code=9612513

Next time they ring, just tell them you have no phone...

The_B_Man

me gaf was gettin that the other day. me ma and da were gettin a whole loada phone calls every few minutes from "Apu Nahasapeema-soundalike" and they had to jut shout at him coz they were so angry, which was very weird coz normally me ma or da wouldn't shout at sum1 over the phone!

johnp

whiskeyman wrote:

Next time they ring, just tell them you have no phone...

TerrorFirmer

IvaBigWun wrote:

I just got a call from an Apu soundalike (at first I thought it was a windup!) asking me if Id be interested in Telecommunications of some sort. I made my excuses after listening for three seconds and hung up. I thought this kida thing was illegal now?

Lmao, I got a call like that in work on Friday....I thought it was a prank or something....his voice was too comically sterotypical indian I thought it had to be!

scuba steve

ah man i was getting the exact same call on my house phone all last week! He kept asking if I had permission to make decisions about the landline and then he'd hang up

Hobbes

Tell them to remove you from the list but before that ask where they got your details from. They are required to tell you.

If they keep ringing you can either report them to the Data Protection office or you can do what I do and say "Hang on while I switch off the cooker" and then go back in and watch TV.

Lemming

AFAIK, if you here a silence for a few seconds like a dead line followed by some sort of audible click and then their voice, then they're using an auto-dialer, which is illegal in this country.

Might point that out to them and watch them go *click* and byebye

whiskeyman

Lemming wrote:

then they're using an auto-dialer, which is illegal in this country.

Given that a lot of these seem to be from India, does it not fall outside our jurisdiction?
I've noticed that since the regulation of cold-calling came in last year, there's been a huge increase in foreign based cold-calling... perhaps to take advantage of this loophole?

tSubh Dearg

I'm currently working in market research where sometimes we have to cold call numbers to do surveys with us. Because of the Data Protection Act all the numbers we use are randomly generated by a main computer and then sent out to our computers. Then we call people from the phones at our desks.

All you have to do if you are getting a lot of unwanted cold calls, whether from Telecommunications companys or market research groups, is to ask to be taken off the list. Then the company will blacklist you in their computer system and you will never get a call from that company again.

nlgbbbblth

I'd say I get one or two calls like that every week.

Lately I've told them that my existing telephone provider has written to me saying that they will kill me and my family if I move to a competitor - even if they are cheaper.

Their reactions are hilarious.