Already nearly 1.5 million Belgians are on the don’t-call-me list: “Registering takes barely 18 seconds”

by Sportsfanno1

10 comments

  1. Companies calling you to sell contracts or subscriptions: it can be an annoyance. This is also shown by figures from the FPS Economy. Some 1,492,000 Belgians have already registered on the don’t-call-me list. Model and ex-Miss Belgium, Celine Van Ouytsel, has recently become one of them. Once you are on the list, companies are no longer allowed to call you for commercial purposes.

    In the podcast ‘Mens erger je niet’, Celine talks about her annoyance that she shares with nearly 1.5 million Belgians. “I once made the mistake of telling a company to call me back the week after. They then called me 7 more times without me picking up. If you call me 7 times without me picking up, it’s obvious I don’t want it, right?”

    **18 seconds to register**

    Celine immediately registers on the call-me-not-more list during the podcast recording. “That’s very fast. I had to push the number 1 twice and it was fine. The call barely took 18 seconds.”

    Lien Meurisse of the FPS Economy explains how to register. “Call 02 882 19 75 with the phone number you want to register. Then follow the instructions. Within five working days, your phone number will appear on the list and all Belgian companies will no longer be allowed to call you.” Foreign companies do not have to adhere to the list.

    “That registration lasts in principle for life, but if you want you can change your data afterwards or undo the registration. You do that by calling the same number. Also, if you want to check if your number is registered on the list, it’s best to call 02 882 19 75.”

    **Really done calling?**

    Just because you register on the don’t-call-me list doesn’t mean you can never be called by a company after that. “Companies may still contact you if it is not for commercial messages. So they may still call you to confirm an appointment, for example,” Meurisse clarifies.

    “Should you still get commercial calls despite your registration, you have 2 options. First, check whether you didn’t give the company permission to call you in the past anyway, via a contract or a questionnaire. If not, then it’s best to report it through ConsumerConnect.” If you did give a company permission to contact you, but you changed your mind, you may ask for your personal information to be removed from their database.

    Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

  2. Die bel me niet lijst begint wel irrelevant te worden met al die oplichters. Ik sta al jaren op die lijst. Nooit telefoon gekregen van marketing bedrijven maar hoeveel keer per maand ik “Hi this is Paypal …” te horen krijg de laatste tijd begint echt op mijn systeem te werken.

  4. Genoeg organisaties die helaas de lijst compleet negeren, ondanks dat ik al jaren op de lijst sta krijg ik nog steeds calls. De grootste overtreders zijn proximus, test-aankoop en ipsos; die lachen dan ook in je gezicht als je ze informeert dat je op de lijst staat en dat ze je niet mogen bellen.

  5. So they will start calling not commercially but informative or some other bullshit.

  6. I keep getting calls about my binance account, never had one, and dont want one.

  7. I was hesitant to register because I feared that this list is basically a great list of telephone numbers for telemarketers and scammers … but I have to admit that the number of calls has indeed gone down a lot! Strong recommendation!

    The remaining calls all come from outside of Belgium (“Hello, this is Microsoft Support!”, with an Indian accent. LOL).

    I even went so far as to actually answer calls from unknown numbers again. I would have otherwise missed that opportunity of that Nigerian price who needs help getting his money out of the country and is ready to pay me a commission if I help him!

    (Just kidding, of course – but I recently got a friendly call from someone who liked a website I made and asked for help setting up something similar, and I was so happy that it wasn’t a wine seller again that he got top-tier support for his project 🙂

  8. This is a drop in the ocean. It barely stops calls for anyone whose phone number is on the thousands of lists scammers have. Once your number is compromised, expect foreign scammers in waves every few months.

    Unfortunately, I speak from experience. Due to my forex trading past, my number is in the hands of forex and crypto scammers, so from time to time, I get called by spoofed numbers (so blocking is pointless).

  9. Hoe kan je een Belgisch nummer ook op de bel-me-niet-lijst zetten in Nederland? Sinds ik op de Belgische lijst sta, bellen ze met Nederlands nummer 🙁

  10. Good idea but scammers don’t really accept it.

    Anyway no real harm in adding your number

Comments are closed.