Legit Reviews

Apoptosis wrote:Yeah I registered my home number on the no call list and it's worked thus far.

Worcester Telegram & Gazette
December 3, 2005

HEADLINE: Cell-phone Charges E-mail a Hoax; Do Not Call Registry Chief Debunks Widely Seen Message

When it comes to your e-mail, you can't believe everything you read.

An e-mail that emerged a year ago warning of telemarketing calls to cell phones unless users sign up quickly for the nation's Do Not Call Registry is a hoax, according to the federal government and a key trade group.

The hoax seems to persist in the world of cyberspace because it contains a tiny bit of truth, said David B. Robbins, program manager for the national Do Not Call Registry, a program of the Federal Trade Commission. But much of the e-mail's content is false, including assertions that telemarketers will soon be bombarding unsuspecting cell-phone users with sales calls, he said.

"What concerns me is that consumers get unnecessarily concerned when they get this e-mail, as if something is going to happen that they're going to have to worry about," Mr. Robbins said.

The myth of cell phones and telemarketers ranks as the 15th-hottest urban legend at the Web site Snopes.com, a debunker of hoaxes. National publications such as USA Today have written about it, and the Direct Marketing Association warned consumers and others of the hoax in early September.

One version of the bogus e-mail reads something like this:

"Just a reminder. Twenty days from today, cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls. YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS! These telemarketers will eat up your free minutes and end up costing you money in the long run. To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone ... It is the national DO NOT CALL list ... PASS THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS."

Other versions of the e-mail mention a "directory of cell phone numbers"
that will soon be released to telemarketers and suggest that consumers have a limited number of days to register their phone numbers on the nation's Do Not Call Registry.

So just what is true?

First, there is no national collection of cell-phone numbers that will soon be released to telemarketers. In fact, there is no national list of cell phone numbers.

Four wireless carriers - Alltel, Cingular, Sprint/Nextel and T-Mobile - are meeting monthly as part of a "Wireless Directory Assistance Working Group."
That much is true. But no launch of a directory is imminent, according to David S. Eastman, director of communications for Qsent Inc. of Portland, Ore., which has been hired by the carriers to help create and manage a directory.

If and when a directory emerges for the 199 million cell phones in the United States, consumers will be given a chance to be listed, Mr. Eastman said. If they do nothing, they won't be listed.

"We really believe that the majority of the people who will opt in to directory assistance will be small businesses, home-based businesses and companies that really have need to connect to their users," Mr. Eastman said.

The second major element of the bogus e-mails - the contention that telemarketers might call cell phones with unsolicited pitches - is untrue.
According to the Direct Marketing Association, the Telemarketing Consumer Protection Act of 1991 makes it illegal to place solicitation calls to cell phones without an individual's permission.

Federal Communications Commission rules also prohibit telemarketers from using their favorite tool, an automatic dialer, to call cell phones.

A third element of the e-mails is partly true. Consumers can register cell-phone numbers in the national Do Not Call Registry. The registry will block most, but not all, unsolicited calls and has been open to cell phones and land-line phones since 2003.

But there is no deadline associated with the registry, according to the FTC.

"That e-mail, part of the reason it's lingered, is because it mixes truth with fiction," said Mr. Robbins. "It points people to the Do Not Call Registry, but it warns people there's some emergency when there isn't."

A key step to protecting a phone number is to give it out sparingly.
Telemarketers typically buy lists of phone numbers from businesses that have obtained the numbers from consumers. Sign up for a product or service, provide a phone number and the number ends up on a list, said Mr. Eastman.