Monday’s Informer provided the phone numbers of the state and federal agencies that consumers should contact to complain about annoying telephone solicitations. In response to the column, a reader called in to offer a suggestion.

“I wondered if you might want to say something — and maybe this is incorrect — but I heard that the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, had set up a reward for anybody who could figure out how to shut down ‘Rachel from Cardholder Services,’ ” she said. “Those are the most aggravating people.”

The Informer last wrote about “Rachel” — one of several audiofiles used in so-called robocalls — in August, when it passed along some Federal Trade Commission advice on how to deal with such automated calls: Hang up; block the number; and report the call to federal officials.

In October, the FTC held a Robocall Summit and announced, as the reader said, that it would award $50,000 to whoever can devise a way to stop robocalls on both landlines and cellphones.

“The vast majority of telephone calls that deliver a prerecorded message trying to sell something to the recipient are illegal. The FTC regulates these calls under the Telemarketing Sales Rule. …,” read the official rules for the contest, called the Robocall Challenge.

“The Competition is intended to provide recognition to individuals, teams of individuals, for-profit legal entities, and/or non-profit organizations … for developing proposed technical solutions or functional solutions and proofs of concepts that can block illegal robocalls.”

The FTC accepted entries from Oct. 25 through Jan. 17. Judging is ongoing, and any winner will be announced April 15. Half of an entry’s score will be based on whether the idea would work; assessments on ease of use and ease of deployment will combine for the other half.

The FTC in late January announced that it had received just under 800 eligible submissions, and information on each one can be viewed at http://robocall.challenge.gov/submissions.

The ideas include call-screening, legislative and regulatory proposals; smartphone apps; plans for ID codes and verification numbers; and various star-key-and-number combinations that would send call data to regulators or block future calls.

To report robocalls, visit www.donotcall.gov or phone 888-382-1222.

Do Not Call data

According to data collected by the FTC, as of Sept. 30, 530,104 numbers assigned to area code 337 were registered with the federal Do Not Call list. From fiscal years 2008 through 2012, 21,212 people from the 337 area — including 9,373 last year alone — submitted complaints to federal officials.

The total number of complaints originating in Louisiana in 2012 amounted to 55,518.

In a ranking of participation in the federal Do Not Call program, Louisiana was 45th, with 58,735 list registrations per 100,000 people — or 2,687,052 total active phone number registrations.

Online: www.ftc.gov/robocalls.

The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098, press 5 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com

(mgnonline.com)