TODAY The Southern Daily Echo gives its thousands of readers the chance to add their name to our campaign to end the menace of silent calls.

By completing the attached form you could help bring about a change in the law making it illegal for direct telephone marketing companies to dial more numbers than they can handle.

Hundreds of people in Hampshire have already come forward describing how they have been victims of the predictive dialling computer systems that allows telemarketing firms to automatically ring a selection of random numbers.

While the method is used to increase productivity it means thousands of calls are abandoned as there are not enough operators to take them all.

The Daily Echo has joined forces with BBC Radio Solent's Silent Calls Campaign which has already seen 1,300 victims come forward.

Yesterday more people contacted the Echo to tell how they have been left confused and frightened by the calls.

People like pensioner Mary Jones of Wharncliffe Road, Woolston, whose life has been blighted by silent calls for the last two years.

"Some days I get six calls a day," said the 80-year-old widow. "I live alone in my flat and it can be very distressing."

Our campaign is being welcomed by UK Data IT, a company that specialises in suppressing unwanted calls.

A year ago it launched a Silent Callgard Service which allows people who have been getting silent calls to register their home number.

About 40 telemarketing companies, out of a possible 1,700 who use predictive dialling, have voluntarily consulted the register to make sure they do not use the numbers.

Spokesman Robert Keitch said: "This is a file that consumers can join for a year free of charge .

"We supply the list to telemarketing companies who screen their data against the list to ensure they don't dial the numbers listed.

"Nationwide around 400,000 people have signed up although they have to renew their number if they want to continue to be on the register after 12 months."

Mr Keitch's said the company's first priority was getting as many telemarketing firms to screen their data against the list although admitted other organisations, such as debt collection agencies, were also guilty of overdialling resulting in silent calls.