If you are like many people you are getting calls from telemarketers at home and at work, but mostly at home.

And if you run a business at home, it makes it very difficult if you receive these calls while you are busy working. Not only do these calls interrupt your workflow but cause loss of time.

So what are some of the best ways to reduce telemarketing calls.

Many people ask what are they trying to sell, it varies, from research companies carpet cleaning, we have heard so many different.

A call to your phone company is also probably a good idea and document all the calls, trying to collect as much as you can from the caller, may require some time, but  if you find out, you can then contact the company who hired them.

Many clues as to the caller being a telemarketer are visible when the call comes in, from the caller ID being suspect.

Most of the time when you answer the call there will be silence, and when you say something that triggers the system to transfer to a person who then starts their pitch.

The FTC receives in the neighborhood of 200,000 complaints each month on telemarketers.  What is the FTC doing about this?

You can contact your elected representatives and ask then what they are doing as well.  Doing nothing about this is not an option, as the problem is getting worse, not better. You can try to call the AT&T Corporate offices, such as the office of the president.

ABC has a story on stopping telemarketers.

Victim of phone fraud? Rep. Grace Meng’s legislation on spoofing passes House

Complaints to the Better Business Bureau(BBB), using automated calling platforms.

So what are there exemptions? There are exemptions for certain kinds of telemarketers:

• Charities seeking donations;

• Politicians seeking your vote;

• Companies with which you have an existing business relationship;

• Survey companies doing opinion polls.

Why do these companies continue to use these tactics? Because they apparently work, we fall prey to their tactics, and it is especially sad to see the elderly falling victim.

Why would anyone have someone come clean their carpets who they do not know.

Make annoying telemarketers stop calling: Tell them they’re calling a business (if they call again, sue!).

Tell telemarketers and solicitors that your under 18 and can’t buy their product yet and they stop calling.

You can tell telemarketers to stop calling. Sign up for the National Do Not Call Registry:

DON’T GET REALLY ANGRY

“Remember, the computer chose your lead, not the caller. If you scream at them because you’ve been called before, this will not make them sympathetic to your case. It’s likely they’ll just put you back into the lead pool to torture you.”

The most efficient response is to say: “Please put me on your do not call list.” in a calm voice and hang up.

Some may want to put a little more effort into tracking down the people behind the calls, the problem is that there are so many ways the calls originate, and once your number is on a lists and there are thousands of lists, and with so many unscrupulous telemarketers, who ignore the FTC Do Not Call Registry.

Remember you can also file a complaint. There hundreds of thousands of complaints filed monthly, at some point the FCC, FTC and government officials will have to do something, this is again a situation where the technology used by the perpetrators is more advanced than the technology to stop the calls.

Things to collect from calls:

date/Time, caller id, number, callers name, company being represented, call back number if given.

Perhaps if there was a device you could use where pushing a button would play recording for the caller. There are some devices:

Many people believe that the calls made cannot be traced, although most consumers have no way to trace a calls made by unscrupulous telemarketers, filing complaints and notating the time calls are made, as companies like AT&T are able to trace calls, especially when a subpoena is served.

Recent scams include

1. calls from individuals claiming to be from the IRS, threatening prosecution to collect on a debt.

2. calls regarding your computer being infected with a virus, and the caller requesting access to your computer, I have heard several people have fallen for this