Cut down on scam phone calls

#Middlebury #ScamCalls

Welcome to the season of increased scam telemarketer phone calls, either political or holiday related. The National Do Not Call Registry, a government program intended to block unwanted sales calls, is a free service, and all you have to do is sign up either on your phone or on the internet.

Call 888-382-1222 from the phone you want to block and follow the steps. Or go online to donotcall.gov and read the info. A word of warning: If you register your number online, you are also required to enter an email address. They’ll send you a note asking you to click a link in that email to finish the registration to stop unwanted calls – if they stop.

Blocking scammers on the registry doesn’t take care of the whole problem. The FAQ on the site says that certain types of calls are allowed: political, charitable, debt collection, informational and surveys. Think about the holes those leave.

I maintain that receiving a political call is still a sales call – they’re trying to sell us on the idea of voting a certain way, and therefore political calls also should be blocked in the Do Not Call Registry. Surveys can be just as bad if the questions they ask are clearly skewed in one direction or another.

I see charitable calls as scams if they take your personal banking or credit-card information. Additionally, if you’ve ever done business with a company, they’re allowed to call you.

So, there are holes in the system. But you can take steps to stop at least some of the calls by registering with Do Not Call.

As an aside, I called the registry to verify that my phone is already listed. Yes, despite all the calls I get, it’s been listed as a do-not-call number since 2006.

© 2022 King Features Synd., Inc.