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Direct Marketing is becoming obsolete.

One of the biggest problems with our phones today is telemarketing from individuals/companies who spoof their phone numbers. It has become a plague to phone owners.
Ever notice that these calls use your area code and in many cases your exchange to come up on the caller ID, yet it is a telemarketer with a foreign accent. When you call the number back, the number is not in service. Many of us get so many of these calls, that we send to voice mail all calls that we don’t recognize.
When my wife and I move from Nebraska to Illinois, we kept our Nebraska phone numbers on our cell phones. This has allowed us an easy way to screen unwanted telemarketing or spam. So now, when we see a phone number from David City Nebraska, population less than 3,000, we immediately send the call to voice mail. All telemarketing that makes it past this screen get blocked. I must have over 1,000 phone numbers blocked on my IPhone.
The Direct Marketing Association (DMA), needs to address this spoofing immediately.
1. They need to lobby congress to make spoofing phone numbers and IP addresses illegal!
2. Then take action to make manufactures of phones, servers, and routers to install blocks on their equipment to prevent individuals/companies from using erroneous phone numbers or false IP addresses on their equipment.
3. They need to take out media advertising to have those of us who are sick and tired of these unwanted calls (and their associated minutes on our monthly bills) send them the phone numbers on their phone that are blocked.
4. Then work with the FCC and FTC to hunt down these violators of our privacy. These individuals/companies need to be fined to where it is unprofitable to continue the practice.
Failure to stop these unwanted calls will result in no one answering calls from numbers that aren’t in their contacts list. The National Consumer Data Base will then become obsolete. Companies like Experian Direct Marketing, InfoUSA and the brokers that use their services will no longer have any customers.

Frederick C. Howard, Jr.
Former Experian Systems Analyst