COLUMBUS — Attorney General Betty Montgomery says Ohioans are getting smarter about telemarketers, and she has the figures to prove it.

        Ms. Montgomery said on Thursday that Ohioans last year gave 24 percent less in 2000 than in the previous year to charities asking for money over the phone.

        A report prepared by her office shows nonprofit groups soliciting money through professional fund-raisers collected their lowest amount in four years. Their take plummeted to $90 million in 2000 from $118 million the previous year.

        “The abundance of telemarketing calls has reached almost a toxic level,” Montgomery said. “I think people are being far more careful about telemarketers in general.

        “They're tired of being interrupted. They're tired of reading stories... of charitable dollars being misspent.”

        A large majority of Ohio's 19,000 registered charities, such as the United Way, do not use professional fund-raisers.

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