Is it ok to call people on the phone, promoting a business opportunity?

Is this illegal?

Is it ok to call people on the phone, promoting a business opportunity?
The short answer is no its illegal. So how do people call you at home yet?





Most telemarketers have simply shifted doing business from inside the country they wish to call..ie US UK etc to a second country like Canada, set up a dummy corp or LTD and call using that name.





This will completely avoid the DNC list in any country except the originating one. In my simple example Canada. They aren't prosecuted because as long as they don't call Canada they won't be prosecuted.





Does this means its legal? No. But the cost to prosecute outside of your country is staggeringly large and unless you have a huge claim that may net you tons of money forget it. The total amount of case brought by the US against a for company doing business from a second country? Zero.





However, it most cases the laws are really designed against autodialers not manually dialed numbers. If you want to personally pick up the phone to place a call there is virtually no law stopping you, or will stop you from doing that.





If anyone outside of a government entity sues you for placing the call don't respond. Even if they get a judgment they still have to collect. Trust me. Collecting it will be nil impossible. Unless you cave.
Reply:Even if you get a list of leads -- BE WEARY! Do NOT trust that list to be recent! The Do Not Call penalty is serious.





http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business...





That is all of the information for businesses/telemarketers regarding the issue but I would certainly be careful.
Reply:There is nothing illegal about attempting to communicate with another human being.


What you need is to never make a cold call.


You need potential customers leaving their details to you in the "hope" that you will call them.


For examples visit http://www.happydayswealth.com and/or


http://www.officialsoftwaredownloads.com


Cheers, Phil
Reply:10,000 USD fine for violating the national Do Not Call registry. if you are a direct marketer this may not mean a huge fine, but if you are a small business, it can devastate you if reported. you can pre-screen numbers on a call list against your database.
Reply:In the UK, it's the Telephone Preference Service and the rules are the same. You must not call anyone who has registered with this. Cold calling is still illegal, sorry.
Reply:The best thing to do is to search on google or other search engine for "buisness leads". These are companies who sell peoples personal details legally as the people have not opted out or in most cases these days have opted in to "being contacted by recommended third parties".





These business leads companies will sell you the names, addresses and tel numbers of people. I would recommend writing to them first telling them about your offers and then chasing it up with a call... "Hi I'm Joe Bloggs from 123 business opportunity, I wrote to you last week regarding our offerings, are they of interest to you?" This way you have an opening line that the potential customer will be able to relate to, as they will probably remember your letter.





But be warned this is a costly method (postage, print, call and time), especially if you dont pick your target market well.





Try think of other methods that would encourage people to come to you, its much easier and cheaper.





P.S its not illegal in the UK if you have found information in a legal manner, e.g. phone book, business leads company. You cannot use resumes/c.v's though. Not sure about US law.

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