Do Not Call Registry compliance is high and the telemarketing regulation appears to be a success among consumers, but the Federal Trade Commission wants to give households swifter redress when certain telemarketers violate the law.

That could mean more work for telemarketers who already oppose the law.

Without issuing fines, the commission has issued only eight Do Not Call-related citations -- mostly against mortgage companies -- since its fall 2003 inception and two surveys, as well as the FTC's own accounting, indicate widespread compliance with the law.

Nevertheless, open for public comment, a proposed amendment to the federal Do Not Call Registry regulations would force interstate telemarketers -- those making calls from one state to another -- to update or "scrub" their Do Not Call list monthly instead of every three months, as the rule now requires.

The proposed change would enable consumers to make Do Not Call complaints one month after entering their numbers on the registry -- rather than waiting three months, as they must now do. The ruling would not affect intrastate telemarketing -- telephoned sales pitches made in the state where they originate.

The National Association of Realtors' comments, urging the FTC to reconsider the change because of the additional labor cost associated with more frequent scrubbing, will be among those submitted during the public comment period. The association has also urged comments from local associations and individual members, according to REALTOR Magazine Online.

Do Not Call data for up to five area codes is available for free. Data for additional area codes carries an annual fee of $25 per area code. The maximum annual fee for the complete database of all U.S. (including territories) area codes is $7,375, according to the FTC. Companies can easily access the data via the Internet, but must then compare the federal list with their calling list.

The FTC says some 57 million phone numbers have been placed on the Do Not Call Registry which opened last year and the FTC expects at least 60 million to eventually sign up.

The registry allows households and others to include their telephone number on a list that's sold to telemarketers, most of whom must then not call those numbers for five years. Exempted are charities, pollsters and political campaigns, as well as companies that have recently done business with someone on the list. Violators can be fined $11,000 for each illegal call.

Telephone number owners can relist their numbers with the registry at the end of five years.

For the most part, telemarketers are complying.

"The telemarketing industry has shown exceptional compliance with the National Do Not Call Registry," said FTC chairman, Timothy J. Muris.

The FTC reported fewer than 45 companies have received more than 100 consumer complaints since the fall 2003 inception of the list. Consumers have submitted more than 150,000 complaints, but the data reveals only 55,000 specific company names against which complaints were filed.

Without fining any company, the FTC has issued only eight Do Not Call Registry-related citations, at least seven against mortgage companies. They were Ban-Cor Mortgage, Ontario, CA; CPM Funding, Irvine, CA; Cactus Cash and Dynasty Mortgage, both of Phoenix, AZ; First Finance, Tempe, AZ; Mortgage Concepts of New Smyrna Beach, FL and Nations Mortgage of Coral Springs, FL. Debt Masters of Grand Terrace, CA was also cited, but the company's business couldn't be determined.

Consumers appear satisfied with the new law. Two recent surveys, a Harris Interactive poll and an Associated Press-Ipsos poll, both say the majority of consumers who signed up with the Do Not Call Registry now experience far fewer telemarketing calls.

The law also recently received the blessings of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver when it ruled Feb. 17 that telemarketers do not have a First Amendment right to call consumers with sales pitches when that right supersedes consumers' right to privacy after they've indicated they don't want to be phone pitched.

Published: February 26, 2004

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.