Telemarketing Review -- Comment. FTC File No. P994414

1. As a member of the general public, and frequent target of numerous telemarketing calls on almost a daily basis, I can assure you the rules regulating the telemarketing industry are weak and not enough. Most, not all, of the telemarketing representatives who call my home follow the rules as legislated. Yet I still receive enough calls where I, and members of my family, screen calls via an answering machine or caller ID before answering the phone. What this means is that telemarketing calls cause people to 1 - change living habits (not answering the phone immediately) as a result of the aggressive, undesired calls from telemarketers and 2 - pay extra money for Caller ID (further supporting the telecommunications industry), which is the only way to identify if a telemarketer is calling. I urge Congress to increase the restrictions on telemarketing calls even further so that the telephone system can once again belong to the American public and not simply be an abusive tool of an aggressive telemarketing industry

Sincerely,

Douglas H. Bennett