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No More Safe Harbor
R. Alex Whitlock
For the past five years, I've been getting emails that telemarketers would soon be able to target cell phones. Usually right before and after I'd get emails about an e-mail tax. I was worried at first, but I eventually just started brushing them off.
Turns out that it looks like they might have been right.
I've been expecting an important phone call, so I jumped at the phone when it went off. I answered and a machine told me about their latest and greatest offer.
I guess there really was a wolf this time.
Addendum: I googled back the phone number and
found out that the tele-agency is aligned with some
questionable folks. It wasn't
USPACS that they were advertising for. I didn't stick around to find out the company that was paying for the calls. Part of me wishes I had as they were in the industry that my employer has for clients.
Addendum II: This is apparently the callers. Found
here.
Observations
I just got my first-ever cell phone telemarketer too. This after being quite certain that, since you have to pay for incoming calls, that wasn't legal. Have the laws changed? Or were they never there, and I was just really lucky never to get a telemarketer before?
I know that there used to be laws. So to the extent that there were, they've been changed or the telemarketers contacting us are breaking the law.
One thing I've heard is that it was going to be changed because consumers demanded the right to move phone numbers from landline to cell phones (or be able to have one number for both) and once that line was cut, they had no choice but to let telemarketers call cell phones (cause they'd no longer be able to tell whether it was a cell phone number or not).
Not sure if that's true, though.
No, they're still illegal.
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