Along with elevating their targets' blood pressure significantly and interrupting nearly everyone's dinner from time to time, fraudulent telemarketers steal about ＄40 billion from US consumers
each year. It was probably the ＄40 billion that motivated the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) along with other agencies and public/private
business partnerships to recognize the problem and set standards for what had been a virtually unregulated ＄720 billion industry. This summarizes the federal laws and regulations related to
telemarketing, the establishment of a registry of those who do not wish to receive calls from telemarketers, and the options available to consumers who wish to further limit the calls they
receive or to report questionable telemarketing practices. Particularly interesting is a list of offending companies, complaints and enforcement actions taken by the FCC in roughly one year and
another showing inconsistencies identified by the FTC and FCC in enforcement. Annotation 穢2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
