The Federal Trade Commission has revealed plans for a year-long review of its Telemarketing Sales Rule and a broader study of the telemarketing industry.
The review could lead to proposed amendments to the do-not-call provision of the TSR and tougher government controls on the industry. Authorities estimate consumers annually lose between $40 billion and $60 billion a year to fraudulent telemarketing schemes.
To begin the review process, the first in a series of public forums is scheduled for Jan. 11 in Washington, DC, and will focus on the do-not-call provision. The FTC chose to launch the public portion of its review due to a growing number of consumer inquiries on how to stop unwanted telemarketing calls.
Despite the Direct Marketing Association’s voluntary Telephone Preference Service (TPS), and states tightening their controls over telemarketers with tough new laws, the FTC said it was “beneficial to begin the rule review process with a discussion of the operation [and its rules] including the interplay between the FTC regulations and other federal, state and industry initiatives.”
Meanwhile, project KNOW FRAUD, was kicked off this week by a number of associations and government agencies including the FTC and the U.S. Postal Service, which mailed a KNOW FRAUD post card to every American household. The effort is a massive consumer education program on telemarketing fraud.
Disclosure of the FTC’s review comes less than two weeks after President Clinton announced a three-pronged attack on telemarketing fraud. That attack, outlined by the President on Nov. 6, includes improved coordination among federal, state and local enforcement agencies and consumer groups, the creation of a national telemarketing fraud hotline, and a national telemarketing fraud educational campaign.
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