Get rid of junk mail and protect your identity! Part 3 - Telemarketers

Well, we've stopped receiving pre-approved credit offers and insurance offers in Part I and in Part II we stopped almost all of the other junk mail and catalogs, so what next? Part III of course...getting your name off of telemarketers lists.

Luckily, the government is on our side in the battle against telemarketers and has set up donotcall.gov as an easy way for us to take of either our home phone or cellphone (or both!) numbers off of the calling lists. The site looks awful (think mid 90's web design) and the registration for is probably the quickest one that I've ever filled out. That's the beauty of it, it's so basic that it takes no time at all to get done.....so no excuses!

After registering here, there is a 31 day period before the delisting of your number occurs, but after that you will be all set and those calls from the random salespeople that come in right when you're about to eat dinner will cease.

The Federal Trade Commission has a very thorough Frequently Asked Questions section on their page. It's worth checking out if you're interested in learning more about the history of the site and how it the Do Not Call list works.