Article 3 of 17

Subject:      Re: Private Citizen stops Cyberpromo?
From:         bluefire@well.com (Bob Jacobson)
Date:         1997/05/29
Message-Id:   <5mil2v$p7m$1@was.hooked.net>
Newsgroups:   news.admin.net-abuse.email
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In article <5mie2d$f0@sam.ksu.ksu.edu>,
The Avocado Avenger <srm12@flerb.com> wrote:

>  I received in a mailing list today information about Robert Bulmash's
>group Private Citizen, which apparently specializes in getting
>telemarketers and other such advertisers to leave people alone.  The web
>site is http://www.private-citizen.com.  They apparently charge either $20
>or $10 to help cut down on telemarketing calls or junk mail.  

Robert Bulmash is a very nice guy who has been dueling with the
telemarketers for well over 15 years -- at least that's when I first
met him, while I was working for the CA legislature. Bob had worked
out the first scheme for taking telemarketers to small claims court.

Basically, he sets a charge for receiving telemarketing calls, informs
the telemarketer, and when calls come through, he sends a bill -- then
prosecutes in a local small claims court, asking for a mere $100 per
call compensation.  According to Bob, he always gets his money and the
calls stop coming.  This worked with big telemarketers and small.  His
"secret" is using small claims courts, which favor consumers, and not
asking for the world ($1,000 a call or whatever).  Judges like his
demeanor and are sympathetic: they hate the damn calls, too.  

I don't know how passage of the federal telemarketing regulations,
pathetic things that they are, are affecting his success.  Maybe his
Web site says.

Private Citizen offers this service for a nominal fee to others and
from what I've heard it works, certainly better than DMA remove lists
and other half-hearted efforts.

I don't know how this translates to the net, but Bulmash is real and
an honorable guy.  I think he lives in Chicago, for those who want to
talk with him personally.

Bob Jacobson
Senior Consultant
SRI Consulting
Menlo Park, CA