User Manual

If you are contacted by one of these scammers, it is recommended that you do the
following:
* Obtain the name of the company and phone number of the caller trying to sell
you something. Log the date and time of the call, and take notes for each call,
if they call you more than once.
* Contact your local Better Business Bureau. To locate one in your area click
here http://www.bbb.org/bbblookup/
* Contact your state attorney general's office at http://www.naag.org/
* Notify Privacy Technologies at 1-800-373-6290 or by email at
[e-mail]. We have already notified the Federal Trade
Commission in an attempt to protect consumers and stop this scam.
More information about how to handle identity theft can be found at
http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/
How do telemarketing calls work?
There are several hundred telemarketing call centers in the U.S., with the
majority of telemarketing calls being dialed by a computer known as an auto
dialer or predictive dialer. Predictive dialers can dial 3-5 numbers
simultaneously and can make as many as 500,000 calls between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.
When you answer your phone, the computer connects you to a live telemarketer who
tries to sell you something. If you are not home or if the computer gets your
answering machine, your number will be put back into the database to be called
again later.
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How does my number get on telemarketing lists?
You can get on telemarketing lists in many ways:
By having a listed telephone number Through a reverse phone book organized by
neighborhood. When you dial an 800 number that uses an Automatic Number
Identification system (ANI) to record your number Via credit information
services, such as Equifax, etc.
By ordering products or services from direct marketers or catalogs, whether you
order through the mail, from web sites, or via 800 numbers
By printing or including your telephone number on your personal checks
Even by simply paying your monthly bills
These lists of telephone numbers are then often sold, bartered, rented, shared
and copied from one telemarketer to another. As your number constantly finds its
way onto new call lists, the TeleZapper will continue to do its job over time to
help you protect your privacy.
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How does the TeleZapper "zap" telemarketers?
The TeleZapper uses the technology of telemarketers' automatic dialing equipment
against them. When you or your answering machine picks up a call, the TeleZapper
emits a special tone that "fools" the computer into thinking your number is
disconnected. Instead of connecting you to a salesperson, the computer drops the
call and stores your number as disconnected in its database. Over time, as your
number is removed from more and more databases, you'll see a dramatic decrease
in the number of annoying telemarketing calls you receive.
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Will the TeleZapper "zap" calls from anyone other than telemarketers?
The TeleZapper is designed to "zap" calls made by predictive dialer computers by
doing two things: first, by disconnecting predictive-dialed calls before you can
be connected to a live telemarketer and second, by deleting your phone number
from telemarketing computer lists. Whether the TeleZapper will affect computer-
dialed calls from other sources depends on the type of computer equipment being
used and how that equipment is programmed. Therefore, it may also "zap" calls
from other organizations that use predictive dialer computers, such as