Families across Canada continue to have their dinners interrupted by telemarketers thanks to holes discovered in the national "do not call" list.
A survey conducted by the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association has found that 73 per cent of those who signed up for the National Do Not Call List are getting far fewer or slightly fewer calls from telemarketers.
Five per cent of people say they are not getting any calls since signing up for the Do Not Call List, while 18 per cent say they are actually receiving more telemarketer calls than they did before.
Still, experts say the list is been ignored by offshore telemarketers who use automatic dialers to phone any Canadian, whether you are on the Do Not Call List or not.
"They want you to do a survey and if you follow it through, you are connected to a live person who is trying to sell you a time share in Florida," explains Brendan Wycks, executive director of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association.
Wycks says it is extremely hard to block offshore calls and the numbers of companies participating in the practice are on the rise.
There are approximately 27 million land lines in Canada and 10 million of those are on the DNC list passed by Parliament in 2005 and launched in 2008. Those who sign up for the Do Not Call List must re-register every five years.
Despite being on the list, Canadians still complain about getting calls at the most inopportune times.
One man told CTV Toronto recently that he just can't seem to shake the telemarketers.
"I hang up because they call at such odd times," he said.
Earlier this month, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced it had fined 11 telemarketers and issued warnings to 74 other companies that failed to register with the National Do Not Call List.
Since 2008, the CRTC has imposed more than $2.1 million in fines on telemarketers that didn't comply with the rules.
Last fall, the CRTC was able to crack down on a company from Mexico, which had telemarketers calling Canadians from what appeared to be a 403 Alberta area code.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Dana Levenson
