Opt Out of Unwanted Mail, Calls

Here is a fabulous article from Consumer Reports on a message featured by the World Privacy Forum titled,

"How to Opt Out of Unwanted Mail and Calls."

"Tired of having your mailbox invaded and dinner interrupted? The World Privacy Forum has listed 10 "opt outs" to help consumers get their names and contact information off marketing lists. The nonprofit group's website explains how the opt-outs work and includes links and phone numbers." Here are options that are especially useful:

* The National Do Not Call Registry - Put your name on this list to stop most telemarketing calls. (You can't stop calls from charities, politicians, or companies you've done business with in the past 18 months.) Call 888-382-1222. Your number stays in the registry for five years. The first registrations will start expiring next year.

* www.optoutprescreen.com offers help to stop "preapproved" credit-card offers. Call 888-567-8688.

* Direct Marketing Association Mail Preference Service - The 3,600 plus DMA member companies (catalog marketers and nonprofits) must purge their mailing lists of people who register with this service, which costs $1.

* Once a year, financial institutions are required to send you their privacy policies, including how you can opt out if they share such information as your account balances. The Forum's site provides opt-out links for several of the largest banks in the U.S.

* Consumers Union mails subscription offers for Consumer Reports and its other publications. Because CU publications take no ads, subscriptions are their main revenue source. "We are advocates of opt-out options for consumers," says Meta Brophy, CU's director of publishing operations. "It's in the consumer's interest and our interest to send mail they want."

Vanquish Telemarketing Calls

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 regulates telemarketing calls. Telemarketers violate the law by using a machine to play a recorded sales pitch, by calling you between the hours of 9 p.m. and 8 a.m., or by calling you within one year after being told "not to."

To avoid some of the law's loopholes, say the following to a telemarketer:

* Put me on your do-not-call list.
* Do not solicit me for anything offered by your firm, its clients, affiliates, subsidiaries, or principals.
* Notify other affiliated organizations of my request.

You may ask that a copy of the telemarketer's "do not call" policy be mailed to your home. If a telemarketer calls you again within one year, or if you do not get the telemarketer's written "do not call" policy, you can sue for $500 for each violation.

These rules apply only to telemarketers making sales calls to your home; see www.fcc.gov/cgb/donotcall. Calls from charities or survey groups are not covered. Also, if you have not done so already register all of your phone numbers with the National Do Not Call Registry. Most telemarketers (some are exempt) will be required to stop calling you 31 days from your registration date. Your registration is good for three years. Visit: www.donotcall.gov