Telemarketers Tie Up Emergency Phones

WASHINGTON (AP) - Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner and her counterparts have private telephones from the Department of Homeland Security that are only supposed to ring if there is a national emergency -- but telemarketers have been using them, too.

Minner says she has received pitches from time share condominiums and long distance providers on what is supposed to be a DHS hot line. She says other governors are having the same trouble.

Minner's office says the Department of Homeland Security has placed the hot line numbers on the federal government's Do Not Call Registry, in an attempt to thwart the telemarketers.

Information from: The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal

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