Most countries have these no call lists but they are fairly useless as there is no enforcement.
I've even heard stories of some scammers exclusively using such lists, as they are pre-verified!
I've even heard stories of some scammers exclusively using such lists, as they are pre-verified!
What country are you in that it doesn't work in? I know for a fact it works in Spain and Sweden, but it'll really depend on the country. You'd help by others by being a bit more explicit :)
> I've even heard stories of some scammers exclusively using such lists, as they are pre-verified!
That does suck and seems counter-productive indeed! Even more curious what exact country you're talking about now.
Worth knowing for people who might not know; large telemarketing companies have campaigns on the internet to spread FUD about the effectiveness of these lists, so less people enroll. I'm not claiming that you is one of these, but unless we're being clear what lists/countries we're talking about here, it's borderline FUD rather than helpful to the conversation.
Whaaaat? On a American website, driven by a American VC company, are you sure? That has nothing to do with anything in the conversation...
If someone talks about "Most countries" they're not actually talking about some percentage of countries in the world generally, they're specifically talking about "most countries I know about", so when people start being fuzzy about those sort of details, it'd help all of us (not the ones from specific countries) actually understand what's going on and where. For all we know, they could be talking about India, especially since I've already added non-US context with my previous comment they themselves responded to...
in either case instead of a do not call list, they should be banned completely from calling any number in the country. you could do it by prefix if you wanted to still use the list mechanically, maybe? But the only reason I see for an opt in list is to allow the marketing companies to still exist
... I don't? I'm just want to know what country ferngodfather is talking about, as I'm sure the experience differs a lot by country, made evident by countless of comments in this submission.
> in either case instead of a do not call list, they should be banned completely from calling any number in the country.
I don't disagree with this, but for people suffering from these daily spam calls today, there might be ways to fix that, in a shorter time-frame than "petition the government, then propose a law, then get the law into agreement, then get the law into effect". If we're being clear about what countries people are talking about, there wouldn't be so much FUD about the subject.
Maybe 5-6 years ago and before that, I used to get a lot of sales and telemarketing phone calls though, both from foreign and local landline and mobile phone numbers. Once I was on the list, and started just saying the name of the list, the calls eventually died down and today, I don't get a single spam call.
Why would a no-call list work well in one country but not others? I don't get it. At least explain what makes them work in Spain or Sweden if you are convinced they are the reason you don't get calls?
I think what you have noticed is that the GDPR made it harder for legitimate companies to cold-call all over the EU. But even the GDPR doesn't stop scammers, and neither does any no-call list. Not in any country.
We're all on the "please don't rob me" list and robberies are still a thing.
My parent (or parent-parent) comment made this clear, why a list in one country might work but in others not:
> I think in both countries these methods are supported by actual laws, one via "advertising-exclusion systems" that the companies need to respect, and in Sweden via the Swedish Marketing Act which forces companies to not call people who've "clearly objected to that method" or something similar. I'm sure similar laws and lists exists in other countries too.
If there is no law about it, and no enforcement, then obviously such list would work less effectively than in countries where it is supported by a law somehow, and it is enforced.
> I think what you have noticed is that the GDPR made it harder for legitimate companies to cold-call all over the EU
It has not, why would GDPR have an effect on the telemarketing companies, especially trans-EU ones? They're properly registered as controllers (otherwise they'd be shut down), and added more controls around the data they store. GDPR doesn't outlaw storing data, just controls how companies do so.
The GDPR has fines up to 4% of the company's turnover if they contact people without consent or prior business reasons. If that doesn't work, then a "please don't call me" list where there are basically no consequences sure as hell won't.
Maybe he's in France, since this article is about France having to ban all telemarketing calls since the block lists apparently don't work.
Don't let your regional indignation get in the way of doing basic logic.
How on earth am I supposed to assume they live in France, just because that's in the submission article? Conversations in the comments regularly go beyond the scope of the article, and even the commentator themselves said "Most countries" so clearly they're talking about more than just one.
How do you know that a call that never reaches you was stopped by the no-call list as opposed to your number not being on the list of numbers to call today?
The way the companies manage the lists, is basically that they have three types, they have huge unranked/unchecked lists of just numbers, one list of "good" numbers that are at least online, not on do-not-call lists, haven't recently been sold to already, and so on, then the group of blacklists essentially. Whenever the telemarketers work in their stations, the only numbers that even get dialed by the central robot for them, are the "good" numbers they've been assigned for their shift.
DND is available both on Android and iOS.
So unless the phone company starts banning phone companies that don't enforce correct caller id, it won't do anything.
But it evidently does do something, since now it's confirmed in these threads that at least 4 (possibly) more countries do have these lists, and they do work.