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I'm Not Interested, Thanks: Telemarketing Plagues College Students

The phone rings. And rings. And rings. You're not interested.

It rings again, this time for your roommate. He's not there.

Then you hear the calls moving down the hallway.

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Students report that telemarketers--particularly from Discover Card Financial Services--are calling their rooms with unusual frequency this spring.

While students say the disturbances are minor nuisances at worst, many were baffled by how telemarketers got a hold of their personal information in the first place. Some suspected the University was selling their addresses and phone numbers.

But University officials said they were similarly confounded.

Instead, industry experts concur with a Crimson investigation that suggests telemarketers routinely get contact information from the student telephone book.

The results have prompted Senior Tutors to remind students in House newsletters and e-mail messages that the student handbook forbids them from selling the telephone book to any outside source.

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