He welcomed the proposed ban, which would prohibit sales to customers whose details had been acquired through telemarketing, existing relationships with the company, or online platforms such as surveys or competitions.

“Certainly if the ban helps stop the telemarketers who are often incentivised to make sales by forcing these kind of sales onto vulnerable people, I think that’s a really good result," he said.

"It seems to me an immoral, certainly unethical, approach to target people who don’t necessarily have the capacity to understand. And to sell complex financial products on the phone, I don’t think that’s a good thing to do anyway.

"We didn’t know until he got an invoice in the mail, and he was quite embarrassed and thought it was his fault. So that’s what was what was upsetting to us, to think that it could have an impact like that on his self-esteem," Mr Stewart said.

Mr Stewart said call transcripts showed the Freedom employees knew there was an issue with his son's understanding of the process.

An ASIC review last year found sales practices for direct life insurance led to poor consumer outcomes, including high cancellation rates and poor claims outcomes. Three in five of all policies sold were found to have been cancelled within three years.

ASIC reports into life insurance and consumer credit insurance found that telemarketers used similar ‘unfair’ tactics to maximise sales including pressure selling, inadequate explanations about exclusions, and withholding or providing false information.

Consumer Action Law Centre chief executive Gerard Brody said cold-calling was an "outdated and abusive: practice, with a significant risk of misleading people.

"The evidence shows that these products offer very little value for customers. They pay out really low amounts of money in claims compared to the premiums made by the companies and that sort of truth isn’t disclosed in a telemarketing call," he said.

“It’s people who are experiencing some sort of vulnerability, older people, people with disabilities, people who don't speak english as their first language... [who] end up agreeing to arrangements that they don’t necessarily understand.

“Many people are just trying to be polite on the phone, and when you've got that sales person there putting pressure or making it sound like its too good to be true, that’s where the risk is.”

Financial Services Council senior policy manager, life insurance Nick Kirwan said certain "safeguards", such as a deferred sales model, could prevent pressure selling without banning unsolicited calls altogether.

"Businesses do need to be able to contact existing customers to discuss products and services a business reasonably believes are relevant and appropriate for the customer, provided there are safeguards," Kirwan said.

"For example, if a bank approves a person’s mortgage, it would make sense to call the customer to ensure they are aware of the possible relevance of life insurance and home and contents insurance, provided no sales take place on that first call."