Almost every evening, my relaxation is interrupted by at least one phone call from a telemarketer. I can almost always tell it’s them calling because it’s usually a long distance call exactly at dinner time. Although I have gotten them as late as 10:00pm! The caller id display also typically shows some kind of fake number like 111-222-3344 or all zeros or something. It used to be that I could answer, interrupt the marketer’s speech and request to be removed from their call list. And legally, they had to stop calling.

These people are clever though. Now, most often it’s an automated message that gets regurgitated into my ear. No way to request to be removed that way. No interrupting allowed. Just a pre-recorded sales pitch to annoy and irritate. These systems are usually not smart enough to detect that they have been passed to voicemail, and I’ll often get messages that contain the second half of an automated message. Annoying AND useless.

I tend to be strongly against invasive advertising. For example, my new Xbox 360 shows advertisements on the console dashboard. Not cool at all, considering how much I paid for the system.

However, Canadians finally have an option to reduce their unwanted telemarketing phone calls. Our own Do Not Call Registry. Before you do anything else, visit lnnte-dncl.gc.ca and add your number. While you’re at it, prominent Canadian law professor Michael Geist has a website that will opt you out of unwanted calls from several companies that are exempt form the DNCL. Visit ioptout.ca to take advantage of that too. Don’t forget to re-register on both sites every 3 years.

Awesome eh? You’re welcome!

UPDATE: It’s been over 2 months since I signed up for these lists, and I have seen a dramatic decrease in the number of telemarketing calls I get. What used to be a daily occurrence, now happens so rarely I don’t even remember when my last call was. I’m glad to see that it seems to be working!