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Devices Combat Telemarketers

Aired December 18, 2002 - 13:42   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: So you tired of telemarketers? Well, federal regulators say they are answering the call. The FTC announced today that it's carving new rules to reduce unwanted pitch calls. The regulations will set up a national "Do Not Call" list. Telemarketers will also have to transmit information that will identify them on Caller I.D.
CNN's technology guru Daniel Sieberg joins us with a look at some products that are currently on the market to help us do this. Boy, you just get tired of picking up the phone and hanging up on them, Daniel.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: You know, Kyra, just about everybody has a complaint about telemarketing. Next to e- mail spam, it's one of the universally most loathed marketing tactics if you talk to consumers out there. So technology to the rescue?

Well, sort of. We can talk about a few products that are out on the market right now that help people try and deal with the volume of telemarketing calls that they're getting.

The first one we've got right here, this is called the Tele Zapper, if you can get a look at it right here.

Essentially there's a jack here that you would plug your phone into, and then this end goes into your wall. And the idea behind the Tele Zapper is it essentially sends a signal back to an automated calling machine, which most of these telemarketers apparently use, telling them that your phone is disconnected. So, it thinks that your phone is disconnected and therefore will drop you from the calling list in the future.

We've got some other ones we can mention here besides the Tele Zapper. You see it there, it sends the signal back. It is intended to work with just about any phone or any phone service you've already got on your phone line.

Now, another one is called Call Me Not. Similar to some other ones that are out there, not only does it send a signal, but it also sends this message, a removal message that says, please remove me from any phone lists that you've got to telemarketers. It also uses a manual or a passive mode to decide who hears this tone or message, so you can have control over it or let it be automated.

And then, finally, we have the Phone Butler. This one also is fairly similar in the technology that it uses. It also claims that one machine recognizes any unwanted calls from every phone in your house. And finally, a voice with a British accent delivers the message following the tone, so it is a little bit different. They say it's a polite voice, but serious and trying to get the message across to these telemarketers.

PHILLIPS: Well, can you call your phone company and say, Help me out, I'm getting all these telemarketing calls, can you do something?

SIEBERG: Yes. The phone companies do offer a number of different services. They may have different names, depending on which phone company you use. We looked into a couple of them.

One from Verizon costs about $5 a month called Call Intercept. The idea with that is that it gives callers a chance to say their name, so when they call up, they're asked to say their name. That name or company is then told to the person who's answering the phone.

If the person doesn't provide their name or information about them, then your phone doesn't even ring, and Verizon says a lot of people just hang up when they are asked to give their name if they're calling from a telemarketer. And at that point, the message is played. You can decide whether to answer the phone or not. If it is your family calling, and they're sick of hearing this please leave your name message at the phone, they actually get a PIN number they can enter, and bypass that message. So it is kind of a screener that's happening on behalf of the phone company, but you do have to pay this service each month, whether it's with Verizon or another phone company out there.

PHILLIPS: All right. You kind of mentioned e-mail and spam up front. Just quickly, Daniel, Barb Bargess (ph), our copy editor, came in this morning and she said I got this free CD in the mail, and I got this e-mail to follow, and I am getting telemarketed by mail and by computer now.

How can all of us contact the Post Office, and contact the phone and contact e-mail our servers and say Look, we don't want to be on any of these lists? Is there a place we can go where we can attack all three angles?

SIEBERG: Unfortunately, to my best knowledge, there's nowhere you can go that universally takes you off every list and every mailing list or phone list that you can go to. However, as you pointed out, this FTC announcement today, there's a Web site we can tell people about, ftc.gov/donotcall, and that is, at st a starting point that the FTC is offering to people in terms of these telemarketing calls.

Now, mailing lists are a whole 'nother story. And you know, a lot of these telemarketers or advertisers are coming up with ways to get around this technology or coming up with ways to get around any lists that are out there. There's a lot of legalities and gray areas involved with all of this. So you just sort of have to stay vigilant, and oftentimes, you just have to be outspoken, tell people you don't want to be on the list, or you don't want to be part of something, and just be as vigilant as you possibly can.

PHILLIPS: Telling off the telemarketers. Daniel Sieberg, thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired December 18, 2002 - 13:42   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: So you tired of telemarketers? Well, federal regulators say they are answering the call. The FTC announced today that it's carving new rules to reduce unwanted pitch calls. The regulations will set up a national "Do Not Call" list. Telemarketers will also have to transmit information that will identify them on Caller I.D.
CNN's technology guru Daniel Sieberg joins us with a look at some products that are currently on the market to help us do this. Boy, you just get tired of picking up the phone and hanging up on them, Daniel.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: You know, Kyra, just about everybody has a complaint about telemarketing. Next to e- mail spam, it's one of the universally most loathed marketing tactics if you talk to consumers out there. So technology to the rescue?

Well, sort of. We can talk about a few products that are out on the market right now that help people try and deal with the volume of telemarketing calls that they're getting.

The first one we've got right here, this is called the Tele Zapper, if you can get a look at it right here.

Essentially there's a jack here that you would plug your phone into, and then this end goes into your wall. And the idea behind the Tele Zapper is it essentially sends a signal back to an automated calling machine, which most of these telemarketers apparently use, telling them that your phone is disconnected. So, it thinks that your phone is disconnected and therefore will drop you from the calling list in the future.

We've got some other ones we can mention here besides the Tele Zapper. You see it there, it sends the signal back. It is intended to work with just about any phone or any phone service you've already got on your phone line.

Now, another one is called Call Me Not. Similar to some other ones that are out there, not only does it send a signal, but it also sends this message, a removal message that says, please remove me from any phone lists that you've got to telemarketers. It also uses a manual or a passive mode to decide who hears this tone or message, so you can have control over it or let it be automated.

And then, finally, we have the Phone Butler. This one also is fairly similar in the technology that it uses. It also claims that one machine recognizes any unwanted calls from every phone in your house. And finally, a voice with a British accent delivers the message following the tone, so it is a little bit different. They say it's a polite voice, but serious and trying to get the message across to these telemarketers.

PHILLIPS: Well, can you call your phone company and say, Help me out, I'm getting all these telemarketing calls, can you do something?

SIEBERG: Yes. The phone companies do offer a number of different services. They may have different names, depending on which phone company you use. We looked into a couple of them.

One from Verizon costs about $5 a month called Call Intercept. The idea with that is that it gives callers a chance to say their name, so when they call up, they're asked to say their name. That name or company is then told to the person who's answering the phone.

If the person doesn't provide their name or information about them, then your phone doesn't even ring, and Verizon says a lot of people just hang up when they are asked to give their name if they're calling from a telemarketer. And at that point, the message is played. You can decide whether to answer the phone or not. If it is your family calling, and they're sick of hearing this please leave your name message at the phone, they actually get a PIN number they can enter, and bypass that message. So it is kind of a screener that's happening on behalf of the phone company, but you do have to pay this service each month, whether it's with Verizon or another phone company out there.

PHILLIPS: All right. You kind of mentioned e-mail and spam up front. Just quickly, Daniel, Barb Bargess (ph), our copy editor, came in this morning and she said I got this free CD in the mail, and I got this e-mail to follow, and I am getting telemarketed by mail and by computer now.

How can all of us contact the Post Office, and contact the phone and contact e-mail our servers and say Look, we don't want to be on any of these lists? Is there a place we can go where we can attack all three angles?

SIEBERG: Unfortunately, to my best knowledge, there's nowhere you can go that universally takes you off every list and every mailing list or phone list that you can go to. However, as you pointed out, this FTC announcement today, there's a Web site we can tell people about, ftc.gov/donotcall, and that is, at st a starting point that the FTC is offering to people in terms of these telemarketing calls.

Now, mailing lists are a whole 'nother story. And you know, a lot of these telemarketers or advertisers are coming up with ways to get around this technology or coming up with ways to get around any lists that are out there. There's a lot of legalities and gray areas involved with all of this. So you just sort of have to stay vigilant, and oftentimes, you just have to be outspoken, tell people you don't want to be on the list, or you don't want to be part of something, and just be as vigilant as you possibly can.

PHILLIPS: Telling off the telemarketers. Daniel Sieberg, thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com