Nubility.Net

Many people hate telemarketing calls, as exemplified by the popularity of the National and State Do Not Call (DNC) Lists.

Stop Telemarketers

However, there are many loopholes to the DNC List. One obvious way to cut down on telemarketers is to not give out your phone number.
However, many companies have a legitimate need for your phone number, but they almost invariably abuse the privilege of having your phone number. Besides, its expensive to get a second phone number, and a lot of trouble, right? Wrong. Here’s how you take control of your phone system and stop companies (especially credit card companies) from calling you when you’d rather be left alone. Here’s how to stop pretty much all telemarketers from bothering you and eliminate those pesky phone hassles:

• Get an unlisted phone number. Many telemarketers (especially the low-end ones you’d probably prefer not to get a cold call from) get your number straight from phone listings.  This is one of the big things that the DNC has eliminated.  Unlisted phone numbers used to be relatively expensive ($3/month) when the legacy telcos ruled the world. However, when you switch to one of the IP-based phone systems, like Vonage or SunRocket (I recommend waiting or a buy one year  get one year free deal from SunRocket — they have more features is cheaper and service is the same as Vonage. I’m paying $8.50 per month — all fees included — for unlimited service and a couple of perks I don’t use). If you haven’t switched yet, you should because one of the benefits is the ability to have an unlisted number for free.
• Don’t give out your phone number. When people ask for your phone number, tell them that its unlisted. Handing out a phone number just means that its more people that can call you. Radio Shack tracks you by phone number, but they’ll accept “unlisted” as an answer if you push it. About the only exception I have to this rule is that our medical providers get our actual home number. However, this isn’t evern that important, because in the event of an emergency, we call their answering service, give them a number (our home number) to call back.
• Get a Fax-to-Email/Voice-to-Email Service. There are several companies and varieties for this type of service. They receive faxes — and voice messages from a standard US-based phone number and send it to your email inbox. If you give them this phone number, and you regularly check your email, they can always reach you if they need to, but they must leave a message. Of course, since almost all those calls are telemarketing calls, they don’t bother with the message.

More on Voice-to-Email. I have found this to be an absolute killer for reducing telemarketing calls. I did this the last time I moved several years ago, and I got exactly one telemarketing call — from Verizon, my phone provider at the time — because they had my number. I got on their do not call list, and now the only telemarketing calls that ever come in are those for the previous owner of the phone number.

I’ve used several providers of voice/fax-to-email providers, and even though I’m frugal, I find that the service from Faxaway.Com is by far the best. It costs $1/month, plus outgoing fax fees (incoming calls/faxes are included in the price). Here’s what services they provide, directly from their web site:

• Outgoing email to fax, and fax broadcasting from email service.
• FREE INBOUND - Incoming fax and voicemail to email service.
• Outgoing Web site to fax utility.
• No software to download, no system requirements to meet.
• If you have an email account, you can use Faxaway.

One of their most useful features — not listed for some reason — is that you can send faxes directly from your email, by sending the email to (for instance) 12125551212@faxaway.com. Faxaway then forwards the email to a fax machine, and your message (and attachments) get faxed to 2125551212. They charge $0.12 per minute for sending faxes.
They charge your credit card $25 and track your balance.

Your other options for another line include:

• FaxZero.Com. Its advertising-supported and more limited than Faxaway. If you can’t afford $1/month to get a phone number that’s not consumer friendly, this one is free.
• JFAX.Com. The free version is receive-only, however, they have several methods of attempting to coerce you into upgrading to the expensive services. I’ve used JFAX, and found that they disabled my account once I received a couple of large faxes. They are worth considering, but they aren’t recommended.
• Get a second line from you VOIP provider. This might be a good option if you sometimes need a second outgoing line. You could hook up the phone to a fax/answering machine, and use it as outgoing service. It would obviously cost you $9/month, but it might be worth it to you.

There are many others offering this service, but no others I think you should consider.

Good luck, and enjoy your quiet time.