ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 18, 1997 TAG: 9701200159
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: EGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
THE TELEPHONE PRIVACY Act would create a list of consumers who don't want unsolicited sales calls. Telemarketers would incur penalties if they did not abide by the list.
It may soon become easier to get rid of all those dinnertime calls - those offers to buy insurance, automatic garage door openers, and Caribbean vacations at what seem like bargain prices.
Virginia's General Assembly is being asked to create the Telephone Privacy Act, which would establish a roster of consumers who don't want unsolicited telemarketing calls.
Under the proposed legislation, sponsored by state Sen. Frederick Quayle, R-Chesapeake, consumers who didn't want to be bothered by telemarketers could call the Consumer Affairs Division of the state's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and have their names included on a state "don't-call" list. Telemarketers would be required to abide by the list or face penalties.
The legislation, which is based on a Florida law, stems from Quayle's conversations with elderly constituents, who told him they were inundated with unwanted telemarketing calls.
"They did not feel that they had any protection against these calls," Quayle said.
Kevin McCullough, spokesman for the LOA Area Agency on Aging in Roanoke, said he spends a good share of his time teaching community groups how to be tough with telemarketers.
"It's a huge concern for seniors everywhere, as well as for the general public," he said. But senior citizens tend to be home more often than the other residents, he said, so they're hit with a disproportionate number of unsolicited phone calls.
Additionally, he said, seniors generally don't want to be rude to callers by hanging up or saying no. That leaves them open to telemarketing scams, as well as to legitimate but high-pressure sales pitches for expensive items they may not need.
Virginia consumers already are protected under the federal Telemarketing Sales Rule, which took effect at the end of 1995. Under that law, telemarketers may not call consumers before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. The law also prohibits telemarketers from calling consumers who have requested not to be called again.
But Quayle said his proposed legislation would make it easier for consumers to stop unwanted calls because they wouldn't have to deal with telemarketers individually. He said Friday, however, that he will be spending the weekend reviewing the federal law to make sure the state proposal conforms to - but doesn't duplicate - the federal rule.
The Telephone Privacy Act is scheduled to go before the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee Monday.
Charlie Judd, CEO of NTS Telemarketing Inc. in Lynchburg, agrees that something must be done to rein in telephone scam artists. But the proposed legislation may not be the answer, he said.
"The real abusers - a law like this is not going to affect them," said Judd, who has been in the telemarketing business since the early 1980s and helped draft the federal rule.
Scammers often move into a town, hole up with a bank of phones in a hotel room and make a few hundred calls in the course of a weekend, he said. They're always long gone by the time anyone complains.
A better solution, Judd suggested, might be for telephone companies to be suspicious whenever they get a request for a large number of temporary phone lines.
For legitimate telemarketing firms - those that abide by the federal law - don't-call lists make business sense, he said. It's a waste of a company's time and money to repeatedly call consumers who don't want to be bothered, he said. For these firms, a law such as Quayle's would have no real impact, he said.
"We've always taken the position that it's good business to have a suppress list," he said.
HOW TO GET HELP
The Direct Marketing Association maintains a national don't-call list used by some, but not all, publishers, financial service companies, retailers, catalogers and major charities. Local telephone marketers typically don't participate in the service, according to the DMA. To register for the service, write: Telephone Preference Service, c/o Direct Marketing Association, P.O. Box 9014, Farmingdale, NY 11735-9014.
The Federal Trade Commission has posted a copy of the Telemarketing Sales Rule, plus other telephone tips, on its Web site, http://www.ftc.gov. You also can request a copy by writing: Federal Trade Commission, Sixth St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20580. On the envelope, write: Public Reference - Telemarketing Rule.
To leave a message for state legislators, call (800)889-0229 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. weekdays. To track the status of bills, visit our General Assembly Web site at www.roanoke.com
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997by CNB