Kokua Line
Kokua Line
ID rule abused by
some telemarketersQuestion: I received a call one night from what sounded like a marketing company. The woman spoke so fast that I could not understand a word she was saying. When I asked her where she was calling from, she blurted out something I couldn't understand and hung up. My caller ID showed the number as 999-999-2000. I tried calling it back, but a recording said the number could not be reached. I then dialed *69 to no avail. Is it allowable for a false number to show up, and what are the regulations for this sort of thing?
Answer: There are regulations addressing that specific issue but no penalty for it as yet. A new Federal Trade Commission rule regarding identification of telemarketers is to kick in sometime next year.
Currently, telemarketing firms can equip their phone systems with a feature known as "calling number substitution."
This allows a number other than the actual number a call is originating from to be displayed on a caller ID unit, explained Verizon spokeswoman Ann Nishida.
The Federal Communications Commission has ruled that telemarketing agencies may use this feature to provide the listed directory number of the firm they are making the telemarketing calls for.
But 999-999-2000 is un-dialable, since 999 is not a valid area code, Nishida said. Because of that, dialing *69 did not work.
Catherine Harrington-McBride, of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection's Division of Marketing Practices in Washington, D.C., said the FTC recently amended its telemarketing sales rule to include a provision that requires transmittal of caller identification information.
However, that won't be effective until a year from now, she said.
In most of the complaints to the FTC, "we've heard that the information is not transmitted at all," she noted. "There's not a 'dummy' number, if you will, but simply a tag line that reads 'out of area,' 'unavailable' or something like that, so consumers don't get any opportunity to call back."
Harrington-McBride suggests you and other consumers who receive such calls register a complaint with the FTC consumer help line: toll-free, 877-FTC-HELP (382-4357). You can call that number also just to get information or free brochures.
The information you provide would be fed into the Consumer Sentinel Law Enforcement database.
"Potentially, it would be possible to see if other people have similar complaints," Harrington-McBride said. "That information might help us to go forward with law enforcement action, if indeed there was a pattern or practice of violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act or the telemarketing rule."
Meanwhile, the FCC says that while caller ID is not specifically addressed in its telemarketing rules, telemarketers are otherwise required to identify themselves and the company on whose behalf they are calling.
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