What to do against wild telemarketing

We're bombarded by unwanted calls and have a Registry of Oppositions that's essentially useless. Instead, it would be enough...

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unwanted calls
Telemarketing and aggressive sales techniques for any product (starting with telephone and energy contracts) have been the reign of violence and waste for years. The violence we suffer as citizens and consumers is the constant deluge of unwanted phone calls. The waste is the amount of time we are forced to spend, first during telephone attacks, and then in the (futile) attempt to block them.
  Unwanted calls bombard your smartphone, and in some cases, it may seem like there's no way to prevent them. The Public Registry of Opposition has been active since 2022: they promise you'll never be bothered again by them again by signing up, but that's not true. Nearly 70 percent of consumers registered on the registry continue to receive unwanted calls, especially from call centers. And only 8 percent of Italians have never received a call of this kind, a form of telephone violence.
A parallel market has developed around telemarketing, targeting 78 million mobile numbers and 20 million landlines. On one side, there are call center operators (419 of them officially registered); on the other, the Wild West of telephone commercial offers, dominated by a series of small and large scammers. In this second market, numbers for 10 users can be purchased for an average of 3 euros per package. In between, like some sparring partners hired to suffer the blows of wild telemarketing, we consumers are victims of the aggressors and of the total impotence of those who should defend us, the infamous Register of Oppositions, in which 31 million users are registered in vain.
What to do? Give up? Consider uncontrolled telemarketing an irreversible torment, worthy of Dante's law of retaliation (you like hyper-connectivity, so swallow the harassers, legal and illegal...)? No, we can react and make us feel like citizens and consumers, to arrive at a more radical solution than a powerless Register of Oppositions.
Something more radical would be needed to prevent such an invasive phenomenon. In France, the mechanism is reversed: companies, through call centers, can make calls with commercial offers only after receiving official consent from consumers. In Spain, consent cannot be given online, but requires a live signature. In Italy, however, the bombardment of users continues nonstop. Unfortunately, in Italy, the lobbies of large companies promoting their services and products (energy, telephony, finance, etc.) have had an easy time rendering consumers powerless in the face of a deluge of obsessive offers.

Every time you register on a website, you must provide attention to data that you want to give up. If in fact in registration phase o confirmation of a purchase it is not expressed consent to transfer data for marketing purposesThese calls should normally never arrive. Haste, carelessness, or a lack of information can lead the user astray, leaving them unaware and faced with a disproportionate number of unwanted calls every day. Fortunately, there are many ways to prevent unwanted calls from invading your smartphone; from the simplest ones, such as call block from cell phone, to Public Register of Oppositions (RPO)The best known and most used solution today is the call block. In fact, every cell phone is equipped with a system software, the same one used to make calls and save contacts in the address book, which allows users to create a blacklist and add all the numbers considered spam.

In most cases, to block an unknown or unwanted number, simply select the phone number you want to block and tap the command Add to blacklist o Block numberBut if it turns out to be complicated or the function isn't automatic on some models, just follow these steps:

Devices with Android operating system have a native program basic developed for managing calls and contacts: Google phone. Recognisable by the green background icon with a white handset in the centre, this software allows you to create a blacklist numbers to block. Some Android smartphones also allow you to activate a spam filterThe function can be activated from the phone settings, accessible from the gear, and by selecting the item Caller ID and spamOnce activated, the mobile phone will be able to automatically report whether the incoming call is spam, suspected spam, or simply a normal call. Smartphones in the Samsung are instead equipped with a system features , block all spam and phishing callsTo do this, from the phone settings you need to select the item Caller ID and spam protectionHere you can block all calls of this type or decide to block only the scam or high-risk calls.

There is asystem app To block unwanted calls on Apple smartphones, too. As with Android, you need to open the app Phone and select the item Recent. By doing so, you will have access to the overview of the call log in chronological order. To block numbers, just tap on (i) of info next to the telephone number and press the command Block contact, confirming the action twice.

In addition to the previous system options provided by Apple and Google, you can enable the block unwanted calls also with External appsThe Play Store and App Store are teeming with apps like this. However, two are truly worth considering:

  • Truecaller
  • Hiya

Both apps are free and allow users to solve or refine the telemarketing problem. Specifically, these apps require consent to enter the personal number in their database. This way, any incoming call made from an operator who has already been reported by another user will be automatically reported as spam o locked directly.

But be careful, the options are not over yet. From July 27, 2022, the Public Register of Oppositions (RPO), an free public service Available to all citizens who wish to oppose the use of their telephone number for advertising and marketing purposes. The service works like this: citizens fill out an online form on the website Public register of oppositions or you can call the toll-free number 800 957 766 from a landline or 06 42 98 64 11 from a mobile phone. A final option is to request registration via email.

By registering your phone number in the registry, all previous marketing subscriptions will be cancelled, unless they concern actual contracts stipulated with a telephone or utility company. From now on, call center operators who call will be required by law not only identify, qualify  e define the purpose of the call, as was already happening. But they will also have to confirm that your number has been selected by legitimately obtained lists and that the number subject to the call is not registered in the public register of oppositions.

However, even in these cases, scammers or companies that decide to continue operating illegally will still be around. Furthermore, since companies would have to pay to obtain a list of numbers they can call on a monthly basis, not everyone will be accustomed to this step.

For this reason, the citizen is protected even more with the possibility of fill out a form on the official website of the public register of objections e report abuse, indicating the numbers from which unwanted calls originate. The form will then be send by email to one of the email addresses following:

Objections include not only regular telemarketing calls, but also automated methods, so recorded calls, but also invasive messages.

Calls can be blocked even from landlines. The easiest way is to sign up at Public Register of OppositionsIn some cases, landline phones are equipped with aanti-spam setting, typically available on newer and mostly cordless models.

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