'NO-CALL' LIST DEADLINE FAST APPROACHING

The Missouri attorney general's office is making the "last call" for telephone customers to place their home phone numbers on the initial "no-call" list that will be enforced when the state's new telemarketing law takes effect July 1.

Residential phone customers must sign up by Tuesday to get on the first list. Registration is free.

Consumers can sign up online at www.moago.org or by calling 1-866-No-Call-1.

Since December when registration began, about 330,000 households have registered 360,000 phone numbers, including 2,853 in Cape Girardeau County. The attorney general's office estimates the list covers nearly 835,000 Missourians.

The attorney general's office will update the list every three months as part of the law, which is designed to protect consumers from bothersome telemarketers. The state will make available the quarterly lists to telemarketers at a cost of $25 per list.

Telemarketers who are covered by the law will be prohibited from calling numbers on the list after July 1. Those who violate the law can face fines of up to $5,000 per violation.

But state Rep. Rick Johnson, D-High Ridge, Mo., said Thursday the no-call list is a misnomer because the legislation passed last year contains several loopholes.

"I think if you get 20 calls a week, now you'll get 17," said Johnson, who earlier this year introduced a bill to strengthen the law by eliminating some of the exemptions.

A House committee passed the bill more than a month ago, but it is so far down on the legislative calendar that it likely won't come before the full House this legislative session.

Johnson's bill would eliminate exemptions for telephone companies, insurance agencies, people who make telemarketing calls from their homes and others who currently don't come under the law.

Johnson said the current law allows telemarketers to phone people who they have contacted within the previous 180 days. State regulations define "contact" as any oral or written communication, including solicitations mailed to the home or leaflets placed on people's doors.

As a result, the lawmaker said, many constituents in his district and around the state have reported they've been besieged by sales calls as telemarketers seek to position themselves to take advantage of the loophole.

Jay Hunze, 61, of Cape Girardeau put his telephone number on the list months ago. He signed his mother up too. "She is 81. She doesn't need those kinds of calls," he said while helping out Thursday in the kitchen at the Cape Girardeau Senior Center Thursday.

But all those exemptions have Hunze worried. "I'm not sure I will be able to see an impact," he said. "Hopefully, they will expand it and cut some of the exemptions out."

Attorney General Jay Nixon wants a tougher law too. He supports Johnson's bill.

But Nixon and his staff say the current law is a first step in efforts to deal with unscrupulous telemarketers.

Scott Holste, spokesman for the attorney general's office, said the law will be enforced on a complaint basis. To that end, Nixon's office will provide Missourians on the no-call list with postage-paid postcards for consumers to fill out when they want to file a complaint about telemarketing calls.

Meanwhile, the attorney general's office Thursday warned Missourians of a no-call scam by a Canadian outfit called "Peace and Quiet."

The business has tried to sign people to an "international no-call list" for a $289 fee, Holste said.

But the list, he said, won't help consumers because the business has no regulatory authority in the United States, Canada or anywhere else.

Nixon's office filed suit in Cole County Circuit Court Thursday that seeks to put a halt to the company's solicitations. Nixon wants the company to pay restitution and fines.

NO-CALL LIST HOUSEHOLDS

Number of households by county:

Cape Girardeau 2,853

Butler 1,193

Scott 1,185

Stoddard 1,165

Dunklin 654

Perry 632

New Madrid 387

Mississippi 283

Bollinger 252

Source: Missouri attorney general's office