Do the do not call regulations have any teeth?

In an earlier post, I said that the availability of phone numbers is limited because of the staggering number of families on the Do Not Call List.

We include phone numbers when available, only if they are scrubbed against the do not call regulations. We cannot obtain a phone number from the credit bureau unless it is ok to call at that point of time (keep in mind, some phone numbers that are not on the do not call list today can be added to the do not call list in 30 days – a SANS number is required to cross check your database of phone numbers with an updated Do Not Call List).

Yet we encounter many clients that look the phone numbers up anyway, without regard to the Do Not Call List. One client even hires a computer wonk to take our list of defaulting homeowners and somehow gets the phone numbers automatically by comparing it to an internet yellow page directory (don’t ask me how to do it).

Amongst many clients, the sentiment seems to be, “I’m not really selling anything”, and so they think they are impervious to the do not call regulations.

Says one mortgage broker we work with in Southern California, “I don’t care about the do not call list. I’m not selling them a magazine subscription. If it wasn’t for me, they would be kicked out out to the curb. I save their home.”

Another client memorably stated, “If they are heading for foreclosure, they are in a big mess. They have more to worry about than suing me for calling them.”

Points well taken, but it’s a slippery slope, and certainly we cannot advocate looking up phone numbers if they are on the do not call registry. There are potential consequences to calling homeowners that have explicitly banned telemarketing calls. For more information on these regulations, visit www.donotcall.gov.