Telephone sales operators are forced to call with numbers starting with specific prefixes: block them to avoid it.
Over the past few months, new decrees have come into effect to try to make life harder for telephone canvassers and prevent them from harassing us.
17 telephone prefixes to block
Since January 1, commercial canvassing from numbers beginning with 06 or 07, which can be confused with private individuals’ personal numbers, is no longer authorized. Better, the platforms of the genre now have the obligation to go through a new category of numbers, specially reserved for this use.
These prefixes reserved for direct sellers are 17 in number, including 12 for metropolitan France:
- 0162, 0163, 0270, 0271, 0377, 0378, 0424, 0425, 0568, 0569, 0948, 0949 (metropolitan France)
- 09475 (Guadeloupe, Saint-Martin, Saint-Barthélemy)
- 09476 (Guyana)
- 09477 (Martinique)
- 09478, 09479 (Reunion, Mayotte)
So all you have to do is block all these codes on your phone to finally be at peace. To do this, there are third-party applications like Call Control, available on Android and iOS. Some Android smartphones can also perform the operation directly from the native Phone application, in the interception settings, but this depends on the manufacturer overlay and the version installed.
You can also subscribe to the BLOCTEL list, but its effectiveness is often criticized.
Supervised schedules
The Public Service website also indicates that the “Numbers starting with 09 37 to 09 39 can be used to send messages from a commercial brand to its customers, or for special contact (delivery of parcels, signaling the arrival of a VTC driver, automated appointment reminder, etc.)”.
In the event of prohibited canvassing, i.e. if you are called from a number that does not respect these prefixes, the penalties can go up to a fine of €75,000 for natural persons and €375,000 for companies, specifies the decree.
It should also be remembered that these same penalties apply for non-compliance with the provisions that came into force on March 1, which provide for specific days and time slots authorizing cold calling. This practice can only take place from Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Like weekends, public holidays are exempt from canvassing.
Sources: Capital, Public service
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