"Is this the owner? I've got your cell right here, it's on your business listing."
He's right. That's the problem. The cell you typed into your website years ago is now on every list that copied it. It rings during payroll and during dinner. You can't pull it back off those lists. You can stop feeding new ones.
This is Part 18 of Stop the Calls. Part 6 asked the list sellers to take you off (https://mcafax.com/notebook/stop-the-calls-part-6-lead-sellers). Part 17 trained the front desk (https://mcafax.com/notebook/stop-the-calls-part-17-front-desk-script). Today: one public number that takes every listing, a private cell that goes on nothing, and a trick that shows you which listing leaks. Every part: https://mcafax.com/notebook/series/stop-the-calls
General information, not legal advice.
The split: one public line, one private cell
Your public number is the one strangers can find. Your private cell is for people you chose. Most owners have them backwards.
Set it up like this:
- Get a second number. A business phone app, a VoIP line from your carrier, or a virtual receptionist service can give you one that forwards wherever you want.
- Put that number on everything public: website, map listings, directories, social profiles, invoices, online forms.
- Send it through screening first. The screener from Part 5 (https://mcafax.com/notebook/stop-the-calls-part-5-call-screening) answers unknown callers, and your whitelist from Part 13 (https://mcafax.com/notebook/stop-the-calls-part-13-carrier-whitelist) rings straight through.
- Pull your cell off every public page you control. Start with the website and the map listing, since those get copied most.
- Give the cell only to people who already have it, plus your real funder and your bank.
The leak tracker
If your phone app lets you add more numbers, give each big listing its own. One for the website. One for the map listing. One for online quote forms.
All of them forward to the same screener. But the call log shows which number rang. When a broker calls the quote-form number, you know which door the list came through. It doesn't prove who sold it. It tells you which form to stop using, and who gets the Part 6 opt-out request.
When one number turns into a broker magnet, retire it and swap the listing to a fresh one. Customers find the new number. The old list rings a dead line.
What to say when the public line rings
Same idea as Part 1, tightened for this line:
"This line doesn't take funding calls. Put this number on your company's do-not-call list. What's your company's legal name and a callback number?"
Write down the answer, or "refused," and hang up. Then log one more thing: the number they dialed. That column is new. Add it to your call log (https://mcafax.com/notebook/toolkit/call-log-template).
The rights behind it, scoped honestly
- Under the TCPA, calls to a cell number made with an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice need prior express consent, with narrow exceptions (47 U.S.C. 227(b)(1)(A)(iii)): https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/227
- FCC do-not-call rules are written for residential subscribers and extended to wireless numbers (47 CFR 64.1200(c)(2) and (e)): https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-64/subpart-L/section-64.1200. Whether a cell you also use for business counts is a question for a licensed attorney.
- A business line, like the one you're now putting on listings, gets less protection. The National Do Not Call Registry is for personal numbers, not business lines: https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/national-do-not-call-registry-faqs
- If a robocall or text clearly tells you how to opt out, use that method and note it. FCC 26-67, released Oct 1, 2026, lets those callers require one of a few automated methods, starting 30 days after Federal Register publication: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-26-67A1.pdf
- The FCC's guide covers blocking tools and how to complain: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/stop-unwanted-robocalls-and-texts
Moving your cell off listings doesn't take it off lists that already have it. It slows the new ones down. None of this promises an outcome. Report unwanted calls at https://www.donotcall.gov/report.html. More: https://mcafax.com/notebook/series/know-your-rights and https://mcafax.com/notebook/stop-mca-broker-calls
This week
- Get the second number and point it at your screener.
- Swap it onto your website and your map listing.
- Add a "number dialed" column to your call log.
Coming in Part 19: the online quote form, and how to get a quote without becoming a lead.