Nevadans eagerly join Do Not Call list

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -- More than 288,000 Nevadans have put their phone numbers on a federal "do not call" list in efforts to cut down on annoying telemarketing calls.

According the Federal Trade Commission, 288,294 Nevada phone numbers were on the national registry as of Monday. Of those, 80,706 registered by phone or TTY systems and 207,588 via the Internet. Nationwide, more than 30 million people have signed up since registration opened in late June.

As of Oct. 1, telemarketers who dial people on the list are subject to fines of $11,000 per call.

Nevadans who signed up for the registry represent about a fifth of the residential lines in the state, but personal cell phones also can be added to the list.

President Bush approved the federal registry on March 11, although the legislation creating the list passed several years ago. The federal law limits interstate telemarketing calls, although calls from political groups, charities and surveys can still be made.

The federal law would still have allowed telemarketing operations within Nevada to continue calling Nevadans, but that loophole was closed when Gov. Kenny Guinn signed AB232, which lets the state attorney general use the national list as a way to bar telemarketing calls made within Nevada to Nevada residents.

Attorney General spokesman Tom Sargent explained that under the law, the state has until Jan. 1 to decide if it will stick to just using the national registry or if it would create its own list.

Sargent said the state will monitor the federal list to see if it's working properly before determining if the state needs its own list. Whether people are satisfied with the national list will be the main factor in deciding to move forward with a state list.

The only reason to have two lists would be if "the federal list isn't cutting it," he said.

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On the Internet: http://www.ftc.gov/