Solicitors turn phones into a nuisance

In 1875, Alexander Graham Bell created a device that was magical and amazing. Thereafter, residential telephones became standard equipment in most American homes - and, in one or more ways, created positive values for users. Fast forward through the generations and through multiple variants on the original devices and wired and portable cellphones have now become a nuisance.

Today, elements within our society convert telephone subscribers into unwilling recipients of endless unwanted calls from strangers that intrude upon a home environment and/or interrupt cellphone users in other settings. Calls come in at almost any time on any day of the week. The callers, known as "telemarketers" or "robocallers" treat users as dupes and/or as bags of cash that the callers want to take away. Most disguise their identities to get around a user-phone's caller ID feature.

We are now in a period where individuals may enroll or re-enroll with, or change health insurance providers. Thus, four to six unwanted calls per day from insurance marketers - many falsely purporting to be representatives of the Federal Medicare Program - are aimed at me. Often, phone turnoff is not an option.

The problem of abuse from telemarketers and robocallers is not new. To curb abuse, in October 2003, the Federal Trade Commission established the "Do Not Call Registry." The registry defines who may or may not call a particular phone number. Those who may call include charitable groups, people with whom one has a bona fide business relationship, pollsters and a few others. It also defines when permitted callers may call. Those unaware of the registry can include their phones by accessing "donotcall.gov."

Calls to my "registered" phones indicate that the registry really isn't working. Enforcement of its rules appears nonexistent. Violators are abusive, time-wasting, and, sometimes, obvious fraudsters. Legislators are urged to press the FTC for better enforcement.

Charles F. Falk

Schaumburg