Dude, what country? In Spain or Sweden, I literally don't receive any calls from unknowns anymore, scammers nor telemarketing. Please specify the country so we can know what country you're talking about, and what the name of the list you enrolled in is.
Worth knowing for people who might not know; large telemarketing companies have campaigns on the internet to spread FUD about the effectiveness of these lists, so less people enroll. I'm not claiming that you is one of these, but unless we're being clear what lists/countries we're talking about here, it's borderline FUD rather than helpful to the conversation.
I don't get scam calls, period. I don't think I never gotten scam calls either, and I my personal phone number is findable on the internet + every single email I send, been for decades at this point.
Maybe 5-6 years ago and before that, I used to get a lot of sales and telemarketing phone calls though, both from foreign and local landline and mobile phone numbers. Once I was on the list, and started just saying the name of the list, the calls eventually died down and today, I don't get a single spam call.
why do you assume Spain and Sweden are representative and not the US or Canada? I'm curious how many people live in countries with effective versions of this list vs not
in either case instead of a do not call list, they should be banned completely from calling any number in the country. you could do it by prefix if you wanted to still use the list mechanically, maybe? But the only reason I see for an opt in list is to allow the marketing companies to still exist
> why do you assume Spain and Sweden are representative and not the US or Canada?
... I don't? I'm just want to know what country ferngodfather is talking about, as I'm sure the experience differs a lot by country, made evident by countless of comments in this submission.
> in either case instead of a do not call list, they should be banned completely from calling any number in the country.
I don't disagree with this, but for people suffering from these daily spam calls today, there might be ways to fix that, in a shorter time-frame than "petition the government, then propose a law, then get the law into agreement, then get the law into effect". If we're being clear about what countries people are talking about, there wouldn't be so much FUD about the subject.
Whaaaat? On a American website, driven by a American VC company, are you sure? That has nothing to do with anything in the conversation...
If someone talks about "Most countries" they're not actually talking about some percentage of countries in the world generally, they're specifically talking about "most countries I know about", so when people start being fuzzy about those sort of details, it'd help all of us (not the ones from specific countries) actually understand what's going on and where. For all we know, they could be talking about India, especially since I've already added non-US context with my previous comment they themselves responded to...
>unless we're being clear what lists/countries we're talking about here, it's borderline FUD rather than helpful to the conversation.
Why would a no-call list work well in one country but not others? I don't get it. At least explain what makes them work in Spain or Sweden if you are convinced they are the reason you don't get calls?
I think what you have noticed is that the GDPR made it harder for legitimate companies to cold-call all over the EU. But even the GDPR doesn't stop scammers, and neither does any no-call list. Not in any country.
We're all on the "please don't rob me" list and robberies are still a thing.
> Why would a no-call list work well in one country but not others? I don't get it. At least explain what makes them work in Spain or Sweden if you are convinced they are the reason you don't get calls?
My parent (or parent-parent) comment made this clear, why a list in one country might work but in others not:
> I think in both countries these methods are supported by actual laws, one via "advertising-exclusion systems" that the companies need to respect, and in Sweden via the Swedish Marketing Act which forces companies to not call people who've "clearly objected to that method" or something similar. I'm sure similar laws and lists exists in other countries too.
If there is no law about it, and no enforcement, then obviously such list would work less effectively than in countries where it is supported by a law somehow, and it is enforced.
> I think what you have noticed is that the GDPR made it harder for legitimate companies to cold-call all over the EU
It has not, why would GDPR have an effect on the telemarketing companies, especially trans-EU ones? They're properly registered as controllers (otherwise they'd be shut down), and added more controls around the data they store. GDPR doesn't outlaw storing data, just controls how companies do so.
>It has not, why would GDPR have an effect on the telemarketing companies
The GDPR has fines up to 4% of the company's turnover if they contact people without consent or prior business reasons. If that doesn't work, then a "please don't call me" list where there are basically no consequences sure as hell won't.
Worth knowing for people who might not know; large telemarketing companies have campaigns on the internet to spread FUD about the effectiveness of these lists, so less people enroll. I'm not claiming that you is one of these, but unless we're being clear what lists/countries we're talking about here, it's borderline FUD rather than helpful to the conversation.