Reveal Private Number

You may have heard the term "private phone number" and wondered exactly what it is. The answer is quite simple. A private phone number is the telephone number that is assigned uniquely to your telephone account and doesn't require anybody phoning you to have to dial an extension in order to reach you. It is a dedicated and personal telephone number for you to use and distribute at your pleasure.

Making sure that your number stays private, however, is another thing altogether. Even when you've just received a brand new private phone number for your home phone or your cellular phone, it doesn't take very long at all before you start getting telephone calls from telemarketers.

There are a few things that you can do in order to minimize these calls. The first is to make sure that you specifically ask each telemarketer to take you off their calling list. When you do this, ensure to write down the date, the name of the company that called you, and the name and agent number of the individual who has phoned you. Legally, they must then cease to phone you. They do have thirty one days as a "buffer time" in which they may still call you as lists may have been made up well in advance. However, after that time, if they phone you, they are breaking the law.

Furthermore, you can make sure to add your name to the national Do Not Call Registry. This list, to which you may register at http://www.donotcall.gov. By placing your name and the name of the other people at your home on this list, you will minimize the number of telemarketers phoning your private phone number, making it once again a private number. Again, upon signing up to this list, telemarketers have 31 days in which to cease phoning you.

If they do continue calling you, make sure that you record the date, the number from which they called, the company name, and the name of the individual who phoned. This will allow you to file a complaint at the same website to which you subscribed to the list.