Every one of us has faced the scourge of telemarketers. You’re fast asleep early on a Friday morning, when the phone rings. You answer it thinking it might be a family member in trouble, only to hear a robotic version of the latest political candidate urging you to “come to the polls next Tuesday.” Exasperated, you slam down the phone.While laws exist to protect consumers from unwanted calls, millions of Americans still receive these calls, sometimes several times a day. Technological advances mean that phone solicitors are more able than ever to reach you when you least expect it.Recent regulatory changes also raise the possibility that telemarketers may soon be able to reach consumers on their cellphones. All a company must do is prove some conceivable prior business relationship with a consumer to be permitted to place these calls, interrupting important business meetings and quiet time with the family.Fortunately, there do exist a few things the average person can do to quiet the ringing of the telephone. Here are three of the best ways to eliminate telemarketers from your life.1. Sign up for the federal do-not-call list. Surprisingly, fewer than 25 percent of American households have taken the time to sign up for this list. While it is by no means perfect, the list does decrease the average home’s telemarketer traffic by 70 to 90 percent. Unfortunately, however, the law does allow political candidates and non-profits to call those on the list. The same goes for companies which can claim some sort of prior business relationship with a consumer. Still, signing up for the list is quick and easy. It can be done at the Federal Trade Commission’s website, reachable by a quick Internet search.2. Get rid of your land-line phone. More and more consumers are choosing to go “completely cellular” for their telephony needs. Since cellphones remain largely off-limits to phone solicitors (though this may be changing), consumers can reduce their exposure to sales calls by simply unplugging from the land-line. Number portability means it’s now even possible to port your land-line phone number over to a cellphone. Though, this might mean you still receive solicitor calls on it.3. Use a web-based tool combined with Caller ID. There are now several websites which track telemarketers in real-time based on their phone numbers. These user-generated lists are extremely effective, blocking over 97 percent of telemarketers according to some estimates. One site, PhoneSpamFilter.com even offers software to automate the process of checking whether a phone number is a solicitor. All a consumer needs to do is install the software on a PC and plug that PC’s modem into the phone line. It then automatically hangs up on known solicitors.Telephone marketing is with us to stay, but there do exist things consumers can do to protect themselves against this nuisance. Don’t let yourself be a victim of these solicitors. Take action to protect yourself.

I have the same telemarketing # show up on my caller ID and I have asked them for months to take me off their calling list and they keep calling me? Who do I contact, FCC, FTC, ???

I’m aware that it’s still legal to call for surveys, charities, and (ugh) political campaigns, as well as calls from companies you have a relationship with. I’m talking about cold sales calls from real estate brokers, etc. They simply ignore the do-not-call list. What can I do to get rid of them?

my marketing teacher told us to tell the company that what they are doing is illegal… but i dont think that really changes much
what kind of trouble can these companies get it. i registered my home numbr properly… im sure of it about a month ago… i clicked on the email they sent me
there is still no change and i am SICK of calls. even on the weekends its bad

I signed up on a list several years and the calls stopped. Now I am getting approx. 6 calls a day. Did something happen that I don’t know about that would result in these annoying calls?