Do Not Call

Those who violate the National Do Not Call Registry or place an illegal robo call can be fined up to $16,000 per call.

The National Do Not Call Registry is only for personal phone numbers. Business-to-business calls and faxes are not covered.

Consumers may place their cell phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry to notify marketers that they don't want to get unsolicited telemarketing calls.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations prohibit telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers without prior consent. Automated dialers are standard in the industry, so most telemarketers are barred from calling consumers' cell phones without their consent.

Placing your number on the National Do Not Call Registry will stop most telemarketing calls, but not all. Calls from or on behalf of political organizations, charities and telephone surveyors are permitted.

Exemptions to the DNC:

1. If you have an established relationship with a business, it can call you for up to 18 months after your last purchase, payment or delivery — even if your number is on the National Do Not Call Registry.

2. If you make an inquiry or submit an application to a company, it can call you for three months afterward.

3. Any questionnaire, lottery, contest, sweepstakes, request for free products or coupons – anything you originate or initiate, anything you sign, affix your signature to or provide an email address will be exempt.

Florida also has a Do Not Call List, however, there are also exceptions.

1. A prior or existing business relationship exists.
2. In response to an express request of the person called.
3. From a newspaper publisher.
4. In connection with an existing debt or contract.
5. A real estate agent responds to a yard sign or other advertisement.
Charitable organizations, political candidates, research or survey companies seeking an opinion and collection agencies attempting to collect on a debt are also allowed to call subscribers because their calls are not considered a “commercial telephone solicitation”.

Most commercial telemarketers are prohibited from calling any number on the list to sell a consumer goods or services. Florida law also prohibits a telephone sales call made with a prerecorded message and without a “live” person to introduce that message. Additional, it is a violation for companies to make telephone sales calls before 8AM or after 9PM, local time or refuse to provide the solicitor’s name or telephone number to the party called.

The FTD reported that in one case defendants allegedly made more than 1.3 million illegal calls to consumers nationwide, 80 percent of which were to numbers listed on the DNC Registry. Over a two month period in 2016 defendants placed at least 800,000 calls to numbers listed on the Do Not Call Registry.