Householders have yet to warm to cold-calling protections

COLD-CALLING by direct marketers may enrage many householders but fewer than one in 10 have availed of steps to stop their phone line being targeted.

Just 125,000 customers have taken up the option of telling their phone company to exclude their number from marketing registers since the service came into effect in July last year.

Regulations were introduced allowing phone customers whose number was available in a phone directory or through directory inquiries to have an opt-out notice placed beside their number in the National Directory Database.