Accessing the Do Not Call lists

Accessing the Do Not Call Registry

Below is a brief overview of the registration process for telemarketers for the new “Do-Not-Call” registry created by the federal government. The Registry will contain the telephone numbers of consumers who, by registering their telephone number(s), have made it illegal for callers making a “telephone solicitation” to call them. A “telephone solicitation” is defined as “a telephone call or message for the purpose of encouraging the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods, or services, which is transmitted to any person” and covers the cold-calling activities of a real estate professionals. The Registry is available at www.telemarketing.donotcall.gov.

Create a Profile
Once you have reached the Registry home page, the first step is to create a profile for your company or organization by clicking on ALL NEW USERS MUST CLICK HERE TO CREATE A PROFILE located at the bottom of the page.

Read through the information and fill in the blanks including all contact information for the organization as well as its Employer Identification number or, if no such number exists, the owner/proprietor’s own Social Security number. . If you are registering your own company or brokerage, select TM/SP with “Independent Access” under Organization Function.

The party completing the registration will then need to provide information for the organization’s “Authorized Representative.”

The Authorized Representative controls the organization’s access to the Registry. The “Authorized Representative” selects the area codes which the organization will download. The Authorized Representative must provide an email address as well as an email address for the “Downloader”. The Downloader is the person who will be responsible for downloading the selected area codes. The Authorized Representative and the Downloader can be the same person, and the email addresses can be the same. The Downloader password could also be shared by more than one employee of the organization. Once you have submitted this information, an email will be sent to both addresses, which needs to be clicked for confirmation by both recipients.

Following your submission of your organization’s registration information, you will receive your organization’s ID as well as the Authorized Representative’s password and the Downloader’s password. You will want to store these in a secure location, as this information is needed to access the Registry. To change the password(s), click the “Review/Update Profile” button. Only the Authorized Representative can change the passwords.

NEWS...

Cold Callers must transmit Caller ID info
Included in the amendments to the telemarketing sales rule, which created the National Do-Not-Call Registry, is a provision that requires all telemarketers to transmit their telephone number, and where available, their name to a consumers’ caller ID service. Effective Jan. 29, anyone who makes cold calls and has previously blocked this information from caller ID services must now make accommodations to comply with this new requirement.

FTC proposal calls for Monthly DNC updates
On February 13, 2004, the FTC published for public comment a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to amend its telemarketing rules. Under this proposal, telemarketers will be required to scrub their telephone lists against the DNC Registry list “once a month.” This would replace the FTC’s current requirement to scrub their lists every three months.

The proposed rulemaking only applies to interstate calls and therefore does not interfere with the FCC’s requirement that intrastate telemarketers scrub their lists every three months. Therefore, callers who market strictly within a state’s borders do not yet need to worry about the change.

Note: Does anyone recall that the original Do Not Call telemarketing rules applied only to interstate calls and, at the last moment, the FTC changed the rules to include intrastate calls also?...

Selecting Area Codes
The next step is selecting the area codes you would like to download. The first five area codes are free, and thereafter you pay $25/area code/year. Unless you want more than five area codes, select the third option which will allow you to select specific area codes that you would like to download. Only the organization’s Authorized Representative can select which area codes can be downloaded.

Once the area codes have been selected (and paid for, if more than five (5) were selected), they can be downloaded. Note that subscriptions to the Registry only last for a year, and so will need to be renewed annually and any subscription fees for more than five (5) area codes will need to be paid on an annual basis. Obtaining additional area codes following your organization’s registration will cost $25/area code during the first six (6) months after your registration, and then cost $15/area code during the final six months of your registration. Payment can be made via credit card or electronic fund transfer.

Downloading Area Codes
After clicking the “Download” button on the site’s navigation bar, you will be presented with three options. The first option is “Download Full List”, which allows you to download the whole list for the area code(s) you have selected for download. You can only download an entire area code list once in a 24-hour period.

There are two file formats you can download the list in: Flat Text (which contains only the data) or XML Tagged File (which contains data as well as data fields). The XML format will only be useful if you are downloading your list into a specific database.

The files are in a zip format, so you will need to “unzip” the files after downloading. Windows XP has its own built in zip software. If you’re not sure if you have a zip software program, try opening the file first. If you get an ‘Open with’ window, you don’t have zip extraction software. Here at CBR, we use WinZip (www.winzip.com). But there are several other programs to choose from.

Both sites contain instructions for unzipping files. After unzipping the files, you will need to modify the name of the file (which is rather long and confusing) and add the extension “.txt”. For example: name the file 614areacode.txt.
Then you can double click on the file and open the files into Note Pad or Word Pad.

Another option on the Download page is “Download Change List.” Using this option will create a list of changes to an area code list since your last download. You will receive an email with a link to the custom-prepared list once it is ready. This list is supposed to be ready within 24 hours from request.

Finally, you can look up telephone numbers via an interactive phone number search. You will be able to check up to ten (10) numbers at a time to see if they are in the Registry. Of course, to use this feature, the numbers will have to be in the area codes you have selected for downloading. The search will come back “Registered” or “Not Registered”. You can search up to 100 numbers per search session. This search option is probably the most useful for an organization that engages in limited cold-calling (like a small real estate brokerage office).

Help Desk
If you have any problems, there is a help desk whose hours are 8 AM- 8 PM Eastern Time, M-F (except holidays). The help desk only responds to email, and the email address is: rm-FTChelp@ems.att.com. Click the “Contact Help Desk” icon for more information.