Telemarketing & Do-Not-Call

The exam loves the time-zone trap: a question gives a rep in New York dialing a prospect in California and asks the latest legal call time — the answer keys on the prospect’s clock, so a 9 p.m. Pacific call is fine even though it’s midnight for the caller. The other classic tell is the exception list — expect a fact pattern testing whether an established business relationship, a personal relationship, or prior express written permission lets you call a registry-listed number. Watch the permanence split: a firm-specific Do-Not-Call request must be honored long-term (the TCPA standard is at least five years), while national-registry entries no longer expire at all.

Don’t confuse this with the related account rules: CIP governs opening an account, Reg S-P governs sharing a customer’s data (with an opt-out), and a complaint must be written to be reportable. Telemarketing is the one scoped to prospecting cold calls before any relationship exists. Memory hook: “8-to-9, their time.”