Since the FTC started its national Do Not Call registry in October 2003, they’ve received 428,764 complaints (through 6/18/04) against more than 130,000 companies. Of those companies causing complaints, 200 each had more than 100 complaints against them.

Regulations also keep getting tougher. Effective immediately, the FCC has ruled that telemarketers must scrub their dialing files against the Neustar Ported Wireless file at least every 15 days to prevent non-compliant calls to landline numbers that were ported to wireless devices. Data Warehouse Corporation, the leading provider of full-service direct marketing solutions to the financial services industry, employs in-house regulatory experts to ensure all clients are compliant with consumer privacy, call center, and state and federal mortgage regulations. The company scrubs against the Neustar Ported Wireless files every day.

Also, effective January 1, 2005, telemarketers must scrub against the Federal Do Not Call list at least every 31 days. Data Warehouse will begin scrubbing against the FTC DNC list daily beginning December 1, so their clients have the maximum available time to complete telemarketing campaigns.

Data Warehouse also scrubs against most state Do Not Call lists, the DMA’s “Telephone Preference list,” the DMA’s “Mail Preference list” and the DMA’s Wireless Telephone Exchange list. Data Warehouse will also gladly scrub against any company-specific Do Not Call lists their clients provide to them. Additionally, Data Warehouse maintains its own in-house Do Not Call Master list of highly irate consumers.

In addition to the stricter telemarketing regulations, the rules surrounding the use of credit-scored data and the handling of consumers’ private financial data continue to become more stringent. If you’re not compliant with all these regulations, you could be facing a tarnished reputation, an immense amount of work to provide the documentation needed to address any complaints and fines that have gone into the millions. By breaking one rule, no matter how serious, you also welcome in-depth scrutiny by the regulators into every aspect of your operations.

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