Hong Kong's consumer watchdog has called for curbs on cold-call telemarketing to be included in legislation being drafted to stop e-mail and mobile phone spammers.
At present, the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill covers only unsolicited electronic messages - fax, e-mail, short messaging services, multimedia messaging services and recorded phone messages - but not person-to-person cold calls.
Kenneth So Wai-sang, head of the public affairs division at the Consumer Council, said: 'There is not much you can do to effectively stop telemarketing calls, short of legislation, which the Consumer Council has supported.'
The government launched a two-month public consultation on the bill at the end of last month.
Last year, the Consumer Council received 181 complaints on telemarketing; 162 cases over mobile phone spam, 15 on unsolicited faxes and four via the internet.
Banker Angus Wong said he was often deluged by unsolicited telemarketing calls from mobile phone networks, hotels and even carpet sellers.
