No-call violation reports flood Kansas AG’s office

Complaints about telemarketing companies are pouring in to the Kansas Attorney General’s Office as Kansans in droves continue to sign up for the state’s no-call list.

Since enforcement of the Kansas No-Call Act began a week ago, about 500 complaints have been received by the attorney general from people on the list who say they still received telemarketing calls, spokesman Mark Ohlemeier said.

“That’s quite a few in just a few days,” Ohlemeier said.

Earlier last week, the attorney general was looking for temporary workers to help handle the onslaught of complaints.

By the Sept. 23 deadline for registering for the current no-call list, a total of 397,697 had signed up. Additional registrations since then have pushed the total to more than 400,000, Ohlemeier said.

The additional registrations will become effective Feb. 1, when the new list is made available to telemarketers. The deadline is Dec. 23 for registering to be on the next version of the list.

“We hope people won’t wait until the last minute to sign up and overload the system,” Ohlemeier said.

In response to complaints about no-call violators, letters are being sent to offending companies informing them of the new Kansas law and warning them not to do it again, Ohlemeier said.

“We’re giving them a little grace period, very little,” he said.

A telemarketer violating the law is subject to fines of as much as $10,000 per violation.

Missouri has had a no-call law since July 1, 2001. During the first two months after it went into effect, about 10,000 complaints were received, said Scott Holstee, spokesman for the attorney general.

“Since the beginning of this year, that has leveled off to about 1,000 a month,” Holstee said.

Nonprofit organizations such as charities are exempt from the no-call law. So are businesses that already have a relationship with a consumer, such as a credit card company trying to sell additional services to their existing customers.

Many Kansans, however, may unknowingly allow themselves to be legally added to a company’s call list, Ohlemeier warned. Signing up for drawings or similar promotions is one way of doing that, he said. That exempts the company from the law and allows them to call you, he said.

“People should be aware of that while they are doing their shopping at the malls,” Ohlemeier said.