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Stopping Illegal Robocalls Where They Start

Solving the Business Telemarketing Dilemma

Promotion of business services is one of the most prolific applications of telemarketing. If you are a purveyor of credit card processing services, or you help businesses get themselves listed in on-line directories, or you offer search engine optimization, or you provide funding to small businesses, robocalling can be an effective advertising channel.

It doesn’t cost much to call 1,000 or even 10,000 businesses. And if only ten or a hundred of your calls result in a sale, your cost to land each of those customers can be quite favorable compared to other marketing approaches.

But there’s a problem: telemarketing is heavily regulated. Calls using prerecorded or artificial voices are restricted, and even live callers have to abide by some stringent rules.

However, some of the rules, including those pertaining to the Federal Do-Not-Call (DNC) registry, only protect “residential subscribers.” A business that is only calling other businesses has more latitude. A business telemarketer may believe that it need not worry itself with the Federal DNC.

But that is a belief fraught with peril. A business telemarketer is still generally prohibited from calling a DNC-listed number that belongs to a residential subscriber. This is true even if the call was intended for another business. Unfortunately, these misdirected calls happen routinely because telephone numbers are constantly being reassigned. Every month, millions of numbers are reported to the administrator of the FCC’s Reassigned Numbers Database.

Many business telemarketers acquire business contact lists compiled by third parties. These lists are routinely offered for sale by lead specialists grouping their lists by specialty (plumbers, roofers, remodelers, IT consultants, health care providers, etc.) or by geography (zip code, city, county) or some other classification. Frequently these lists are dated; sometimes entries are just plain wrong.

The following are some recent examples from campaigns that appear to be targeting businesses, but where the called telephone numbers are longer businesses. In some cases, the business closed or moved. It was not possible to verify that the number belongs to a business via common online means.

Date/Time

Calling Number

Called Number

OnDNC

Listen

12/11/2024 21:25

14698194642

14694535290

y

12/12/2024 15:02

15024026342

15024103871

y

12/12/2024 15:42

19295615779

12019771443

y

12/12/2024 15:42

15173702267

17342611270

y

12/12/2024 15:47

14632921183

13175652257

y

12/12/2024 16:38

18173097243

18174068301

y

12/12/2024 20:59

13526541568

18503075976

y

Date/Time

Calling Number

Called Number

OnDNC

Complaints*

Listen

12/16/2024 14:43

13132097245

15175480010

y

64

12/17/2024 20:55

14698629324

14694980250

y

26

12/16/2024 15:30

13327776568

18459154287

y

8

12/16/2024 15:50

15513772401

12014654733

y

26

12/16/2024 16:33

19296021011

19142144586

y

27

12/16/2024 17:08

17739002527

12247778106

y

96

12/16/2024 17:40

15137254197

15136185520

y

18

12/16/2024 19:14

15135132544

15028032261

y

3

12/16/2024 19:32

14057649936

15805365947

y

16

*Complaints indicates how many reports have been filed against the calling number at the FTC’s DNC portal (https://www.donotcall.gov/report.html).

Date/Time

Calling Number

Called Number

OnDNC

Listen

12/13/2024 22:49

19133924512

19134400635

y

12/13/2024 22:55

17324902926

17327194584

y

12/16/2024 15:04

19362509214

19363374019

y

12/16/2024 15:46

19782856957

19785484983

y

12/16/2024 16:12

18455029304

18456350914

y

12/16/2024 16:22

16822818812

16825037004

y

12/16/2024 17:36

19542062787

19545074794

y

12/16/2024 18:45

18603782766

18602664981

y

12/16/2024 20:33

19095838285

19099628180

y

Date/Time

Calling Number

Called Number

OnDNC

Listen

12/16/2024 14:50

12514400242

12565364160

y

12/16/2024 16:27

12767221165

14089981193

y

12/16/2024 16:40

12767221165

19492984841

y

12/16/2024 18:47

19012014974

19017677212

y

12/9/2024 19:25

12703682671

12706000353

y

12/10/2024 19:26

17433560342

12524084015

y

12/11/2024 19:20

12514200225

12057234990

y

12/11/2024 19:22

17312750265

19017677212

y

12/11/2024 19:22

12543570021

14694997248

y

12/11/2024 19:33

14424655259

14082432311

y

12/16/2024 16:27

12767221165

14089981193

y

An internet search reveals that there are about 30 million businesses in the United States, and that about 600,000, or 2%, close each year. If a list is compiled over five years, perhaps 10% of its entries are outdated. Calling 10,000 entries from such a list could result in 1,000 errant calls.

The business telemarketer needs to exercise great caution when using such lists. The safest approach is to check every number against the Federal DNC before placing the call. If the number is listed, the most likely reason is that the number is now assigned to a residential subscriber and calling the number would likely be illegal. It is also possible that the number does belong to a business, but that business does not want telemarketing calls. It could be a dual-use number, where the business owner uses, for example, a mobile phone for both personal and business communications.

The only telephone numbers monitored by RRAPTOR are assigned to an individual residential subscriber. Yet RRAPTOR captures thousands of calls each month associated with campaigns targeting businesses. We researched three dozen recent calls linked to four different campaigns. In a few cases, we could not find the called number on the internet. In the other cases, the numbers were associated with now-defunct businesses; in many cases the number was still listed on MapQuest or YellowPages or some other directory site – sometimes with the notation that the business was permanently closed. Some of the businesses had been closed for years; one had closed more than ten years ago. In at least one case, the closed business’s web site had not been taken down. In all cases, the (reassigned) called numbers were registered on the federal DNC.

Calling a DNC-registered number, even for business-related telemarketing, is taking a big risk for minimal return. Business telemarketers and their voice service providers must be extremely wary of making such calls. Best to honor the DNC request and move to the next number in your calling sequence.

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