Telemarketing Good or Bad?

In weighing the costs of phone sales, telemarketers and telemarketing industry groups do not consider the costs that are imposed on telephone subscribers, such as the expense incurred from lost time, the monthly cost of caller ID or privacy manager services, the purchase of answering machines to screen calls, and the monthly cost of maintaining an unlisted phone number.

Chances are, your bank or credit card company either sells your personal information to telemarketers or operates a telemarketing company with your personal information through a subsidiary. Thousands of telemarketing sales calls to deceive consumers. 1999, Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch suit against U.S. Bancorp for selling customer information for the Member States Works, a telemarketing company.

However, it is sometimes difficult to identify telemarketing fraud from legitimate deals. A scheme of telemarketing fraud usually begins when you receive a postcard or a lettermail detailing an appealing offer. Some criminals use telemarketing techniques to get information for theft purposes. One of the most common types of fraud involves telemarketing schemes that misrepresent the value, the terms of sale, or the use of the goods or services being sold. Most telemarketing firms use a tactic called predictive dialing so as not to waste the telemarketers valuable time while waiting for you to pick up.

Consumers experience telemarketing from a completely different point of view: more than 92% perceive commercial telephone calls as a violation of privacy. Registering your telephone number on the Do Not Call Register will not stop all telemarketing calls to your number. Privacy advocates argue that outbound telemarketing invades the sanctity of an individuals home and should be limited.