However, Maloof did provide some explanation for the telemarketing calls.

Maloof said that Gentle Dental has been doing telemarketing for about 5 years. He said the practice hired a marketing consulting firm which sold, installed and set up the phone system.

Maloof claimed that the telemarketing phone lines were ordered by the vendor, adding that it was “a couple of years later” when he discovered that the numbers were not listed in his legal name. The names used by the marketing firm – M Daniel DDS and Daniel M – “didn’t mean anything,” Maloof said.

“It isn’t like we’re hiding,” he said, adding that the Gentle Dental practice name and phone number are provided in the telemarketing message. I pointed out that unless the recipient is prepared with pen and paper and taking notes when answering the phone, the only information left with the recipient is on Caller ID, which Maloof conceded was true.

I believe, and this is strictly my own unsupported supposition, that the telemarketing lines were intentionally listed in fictitious names to shield Maloof and Gentle Dental from complaints. Who did it and why are immaterial in any event, since COMAR clearly states that Maloof and his partners are personally responsible for misleading or deceptive statements communicated by themselves or on their behalf. Blaming the vendor is not a defense.

Maloof said that Gentle Dental has received a few complaints about its telemarketing. “We don’t get many, but we do,” he said. I suggested that considering that he’s pitching dentures to a predominantly elderly population, very few recipients have the wherewithal to do a “whois” search and track down the caller, to which Maloof agreed may be true.

Furthermore, I asked whether the fact he has received complaints from people like me and others on the Do Not Call List suggests that he is not in compliance with the law. Maloof said that “it takes a half-hour to get through” to get Do Not Call List updates and then added “we do everything we’re supposed to do.”

In his response here, he seems to suggest that I and others received calls due to some other fault – numbers not properly deleted from the list. I have been on the list for years, and were it the case that somehow my number reappeared on an approved list I would expect to receive telemarketing calls from other companies that used the same list. This is not the case. It is the telemarketer’s responsibility that they are using lists that are true, correct and in compliance with the law.