Solicitors call undergraduates

Telemarketing firms continue to target students despite University policies against unsolicited phone calls and student complaints.

"Hi, I'm a representative from Clout, offering to send you a deactivated credit card and information package after you answer a short series of questions," the pitch begins.

The representatives advertise that the credit card incurs no costs or annual fees and encourages students to sign up now and decide later. They solicited information from students, including graduation year, date of birth and Social Security number.

According to the University's "Rights, Rules, Responsibilities," solicitors must seek permission from the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Student Life before contacting students.

Kathleen Deignan, dean of undergraduate students, said, "We absolutely did not give permission to Clout to solicit."

She said even if Clout had been granted permission, they never would have been allowed to solicit students through individual phone calls.

"You'll note in the front cover of the campus directory the prohibition on using the directory for solicitation," she said.

"We found out that Clout is a legitimate company because we conducted some research on account of the complaints we received from students," Associate Director of Public Safety Duncan Harrison said.

He recommended that students never release their dates of birth or Social Security numbers.

"The best course of action is to tell the solicitor that you're not interested, and if it happens repeatedly, report the incidence to Public Safety so that we may contact the company in a more official manner," Harrison said.

He added that it is harder to combat phone solicitation than face-to-face solicitation.

Public Safety usually handles student complaints about telemarketing calls by contacting the company responsible, informing them of the University's rules on solicitation and requesting that they not call again.

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Caroline English '08 said she asked a Clout representative how she received access to her dorm phone number and was told by the telemarketer that Verizon's marketing network had provided the numbers.

Harrison said he questioned whether Verizon had provided the numbers because student phone service is handled through the University network. "You can get anyone else's number by dialing U-CALL," Harrison said.

Katherine Ensler '08 said companies like Clout expect college students to make decisions without looking ahead and therefore anticipate that they will spend a lot of money using a credit card.

"The number of calls we've received in our suite as freshmen demonstrates that they're obviously targeting a specific audience," Ensler said.

Harrison said Princeton students always get some form of solicitation, though he said this was the first time he had heard of this particular company.