Robocall Ban: FTC Bans Robocalls, But Will Telemarketers Obey The Law?

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The era of telemarketing robocalls is over, at least for Americans. As of September 1, 2009, (hey, that’s today!), the Federal Telecommunication Commission (FTC) is banning all prerecorded “robocalls” unless the telemarketer has written permission from customers opting into receiving the automated calls. Violators will face penalties of up to $16,000 per call.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said American consumers have made it “crystal clear that few things annoy them more than the billions of commercial telemarketing robocalls they receive every year.”

But don’t be too surprised if you still get a robocall every once in a while. There are exceptions. The following types of robocalls will not be banned by the FTC.

• school cancellations
• flight delays
• prescription notifications
• Politicial related messages
• Charity calls
• bank and insurance payment reminders 
• survey calls

The robocall ban only leaves one option left for telemarketers: making a live call to someone not on the do-not-call registry. You can eliminate that option by taking yourself off the list here: donotcall.gov