According to a survey by the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, the Do Not Call List is working for most Canadians. The results of the survey were as follows:
•    50% are receiving noticeably fewer or far fewer telemarketing calls
•    20% are receiving slightly fewer calls
•    10% are receiving no telemarketing calls at all
•    13% are receiving more calls since they registered

How is it possible that Canadians registered on the Do Not Call List are receiving more annoying telemarketing calls? It has been determined that many telemarketing calls are now coming from outside Canada. Quite simply there is not enough regulation in the industry and it has now become clear that there needs to be a reciprocal enforcement agreement between the CRTC and its U.S. counterpart. There has been an American Do Not Call List in place since 2003. Telemarketers from outside Canada are using automatic dialers which call all numbers in a given area code sequentially. One such scam based in St. Louis, Missouri was recently uncovered.

The other problem is that it is possible that the Do Not Call List could fall into the hands of foreign telemarketing companies. It was discovered in January that for a small fee, telemarketers could access the list and add the numbers to their own databases. It has not been reported what safeguards have been put in place to prevent the Do Not Call List from falling into the wrong hands again. In the ideal world there would be an enforceable international Do Not Call List, but that doesn’t seem very likely to happen. The reality is that if we move to a reciprocal agreement with the U.S. the telemarketers will move off shore and business will continue as usual, or even escalate.