LIST ISN'T STOPPING ALL UNWANTED CALLS

Judging by the number of people who have signed up to be on the state's list of resident telephone numbers that telemarketers aren't supposed to call, Missourians are making it clear they don't want to be bothered by uninvited sales calls to their homes.

Since Dec. 11, when registration for Missouri's new No Call Law began, more than 616,000 residential telephone numbers of households totaling 1.5 million Missourians have been put on the list. That is a significant number of people, considering the law hasn't even been in effect for a full year.

The list is updated quarterly, and people who registered by last Wednesday aren't to be called by telemarketers when the new list comes out Oct. 1. That list undoubtedly will be longer as will future lists as more Missourians become aware of the law and providing the list actually keeps telemarketers from calling.

Telemarketers found guilty of violating the law must pay $5,000 for each violation. The Missouri attorney general's office says it already has received a significant 4,000 complaints of no-call-list violations. Ideally, the number of complaints will go down the longer the law is in effect, because more businesses will become aware of the list, use it and abide by it.

The law's success also will depend on how aggressively Attorney General Jay Nixon goes after telemarketing companies that violate the list, because a no-nonsense approach would serve as a strong deterrent to those who knowingly call numbers on the list. Thus far, the attorney general has filed lawsuits against just three companies, and five others have signed assurances stating they will obey the law, obtain copies of the list and pay about $35,000 in penalties to the state.

Time will tell whether the law does what it is designed to do. Meanwhile, too many people whose numbers are on the list are still being bothered by unwanted calls. If over time the list doesn't offer any more protection than it has shown to offer early on, Missourians are just as well off under the old law that makes it a violation for telemarketers to call if they have been told not to call again.