Continuing the topic of Do Not Call List scams, here’s another insight into the difficult relationships between telemarketers and annoyed people. You really need to be careful if you are embarking on a voice broadcasting campaign or use telemarketing to sell your products.
If you happen to annoy a person who is educated in law, you can part from 500 dollars or even face more significant penalty fees.
Maybe you have heard about Andre Lamme from California USA who earned $6,000 last year suing telemarketers.
All he did was filing in small claims court a complaint against mortgage brokers giving him unsolicited phone calls. He found a paragraph in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act allowing him to gain $500 for any unsolicited phone call. In his first visit to court Mr Lamme earned $3,500. Small claims court is available for almost anyone. In his first fight against telemarketers and cold calling freaks he spent only $100 in court fees.
As I discussed earlier in Legal Matters Conerning Voice Broadcast and Telemarketing and Do Not Call List Scams, the consumer is protected only if he or she has opted in for the Do Not Call List. It is clearly stated in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act signed by George Bush Senior (do not mix with Mr G. W. Bush Jr.) that violation to this very Act occurs if a telemarketer has contacted a person who is on the List.
Most States allow a consumer to file Small claims court papers online so you don’t have to bother going down and meeting them. Absolutely no Red Tape and no heaps of paper. Of course, this is true if you live in the USA. For other countries consult a lawyer or phone government bodies that do consumer protection.
So to remind, telemarketing gurus, voice broadcasters and cold-callers, always check your database against Do Not Call List. If you make a mistake once, you can part with $500, but, for example, if your database isn’t up to date and you make calls to 2,000 recipients who now have added their phone numbers to Do Not Call List (they might have been clean when they opted for your database) you can as well be paying out a million in penalty fees. Yeah, that’s $1,000,000 bucks!
