Telemarketers calling cell phones?

[Q.]

Just sent to me. Is this another hoax?


Starting Jan 1, 2005, all cell phone numbers will be made public to telemarketing firms. So this means as of Jan 1, your cell phone may
start ringing off the hook with telemarketers, but unlike your home phone, most of you pay for your incoming calls. These telemarketers
will eat up your free minutes and end up costing you money in the long run.

According to the National Do Not Call List, you have until Dec. 15th 2004 to get on the national "Do not call list" for cell phones. They
said that you need to call 1-888-382-1222 from the cell phone that you wish to have put on the "do not call list" to be put on the list. They
also said you can do it online at www.donotcall.gov .

Registering only takes a minute, is in effect for 5 years.

[jruck37]

It's true- a broadcast e-mail was sent out where I work with this information yesterday. You should sign up. You can register up to 3 phones at a time.

[jc228]

Hey Q,

I think it is quite legit. Our IT Director sent out an email yesterday concerning this, and I just went to http://www.donotcall.gov and filled it out with my cell phone numbers (strangely enough, I have three cell phones).

I had filled the form out with my home phone a long time ago, and it has really helped. Few things infuriate me more than when I come home after a long day at work, change clothes, sit down at dinner, get the fork an inch from my mouth, and the phone rings. When I answer it, it's some person I can barely understand, trying to convince me that I really can't go another day without a credit card from Citibank, or Discover, or MBNA, or American Express, or Diner's Club, with my college logo on it, or my favorite sports team, or a fancy little computer chip that I can use to record stupid phone conversations.

Okay, climbing down off my soapbox now. [img]tongue.gif[/img] By signing up for the Do Not Call list, you won't have to deal with that, either.

~jc228

[Q.]

Thanks! Guess we better sign up and I'll pass it on at work since we have tons of cell phones!

[FishrCutB8]

hoax-a-rama....

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/cell411.asp

[hard_rox]

Originally posted by FishrCutB8:
hoax-a-rama....

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/cell411.asp

from Snopes.com

So, although the gist of the message quoted at the head of this page is correct in alerting consumers to a proposed directory of cell phone numbers, it is misleading in stating that such a directory will "soon be published" (the word "published" implies making a printed directory available, which the wireless consortium maintains they will not do) and in directing readers to sign up with the The National Do Not Call Registry. The latter step will not keep wireless customer listings out of the proposed Wireless 411 database — it will only add their phone numbers to a list of numbers off-limits to most telemarketers, a step which is premature (because the Wireless 411 directory has not yet been implemented) and largely unnecessary (because the Wireless 411 directory information is not supposed to be supplied to telemarketers, and because FCC regulations already in place block the bulk of telemarketing calls to cell phones).

Adding one's cell phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry (even if currently unnecessary) won't likely have any adverse effect, but customers should be aware of exactly what that action will or will not accomplish.

Some versions of the exhortation to cell phone users to add their names to the Do Not Call Registry erroneously state there is a 15 December 2004 deadline for getting listed. Says Lois Greisman, the Federal Trade Commission official who oversees the anti-telemarketing registry: " There is no deadline; there never has been a deadline to register."

[Deserve]

It was busted at our office as a hoax as well.

It must be a New Year thing. This is the third company I've heard of sending this thing around.