Whatever Happened to the "Do Not Call List?"

On June 27, 2003, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) opened the National Do Not Call Registry in order to comply with the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act of 2003.  Within a short time, most of us had registered our phone numbers, and for a few years, it seemed to work.  I know that I received very few spam calls, and usually, if I threatened them with the "Do Not Call Registry," they hung up quickly and didn't call back.

All that seems to have changed to the point where I now get 5 to 10 calls per day from people trying to sell me something.  If I say I'm not interested or mention the list, they just call back another time.  I've tried sending the numbers to the Do Not Call Registry, but it doesn't seem to matter.

So what happened?  The best I can tell or garner from the internet is that the government just stopped enforcing the list, except for massively blatant offenders.

Why did this happen?  Well, it seems like the US and state governments just stopped funding the enforcement.  Maybe it happened during the recession of 2009-10, or maybe the companies that make the calls have been donating to the campaigns of enough congressmen to get them to cut the funding.  Whatever the case, I don't think I'm alone in receiving many more calls and/or being upset about this.  People are even getting junk calls on their mobile phones.

As usual, Congress will not act unless they hear from enough people.  So today, I'm going to shoot an email to my representatives in the US and state legislature asking them to push for the enforcement of the Do Not Call List.  You may want to do the same.