PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:           Olha Rybakoff, Deputy Attorney General

                        Director, Consumer Protection Unit

Phone:              (302) 577-8513

Date:                July 2, 2003

NATIONAL “DO NOT CALL” TELEPHONE REGISTRY NOW AVAILABLE TO DELAWARE RESIDENTS

            (Wilmington, DE):         Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the registration procedures for the national “Do Not Call” list.  On-line registration was immediately available, however, telephone registration is being phased in by region of the country.  Beginning Monday, July 7, 2003, consumers wishing to limit the number of telemarketing calls they receive at home can request, via a toll free telephone number, that they be added to the national registry.  Registration is free.  Here’s how to register:

·        Telephone registration for Delaware residents will be available beginning July 7th.  Consumers can call the toll-free registration line at 1-888-382-1222 (TTY 1-866-290-4236).  To register by phone, consumers will need to call from the number they wish to register.

·        On-line registration is available at www.DONOTCALL.gov for those consumers who have an e-mail account.

Attorney General Jane Brady commented, “Delawareans will now have a choice whether to

receive telephone offers, and from whom.  Today’s consumers expect to have that control, and I am very pleased it will finally be available to them.”

Beginning in September, telemarketers will be required to regularly access the registry and

“scrub” their call lists to delete those consumers who have registered.  In October, the FTC will start to enforce the national “Do Not Call” registry provisions of the Amended Telemarketing Sales Rule.  Violators are subject to a fine of up to $11,000 per violation. 

            According to the FTC, consumers can expect fewer telemarketing calls within three months of signing up for the registry.  A consumer’s telephone number will be active in the registry for five years at which time the registration will need to be renewed. 

            Registering with the national “Do Not Call” list will stop most, but not all, telemarketing calls.  Long-distance telephone companies, airlines, insurance companies that operate under state regulation as well as charitable and political organizations and those businesses which a consumer has purchased from in the last 18 months, are exempt from the regulations.   

A link to the on-line Do Not Call registry is provided on the Attorney General’s website

homepage at attorneygeneral.delaware.gov.   Visit the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Unit page of the website for a link to the FTC’s informational brochure about the Telemarketing Sales Rules and the national Do Not Call registry. 

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