Register your CELL PHONE on the Do Not Call Registry!!!

[dreamgirl]

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,Ê 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 <http://www.donotcall.gov/> .


Registering only takes a minute, is in effect for 5 years and will possibly save you money (definitely frustration)! Make sure you register now!

[sana]

this is not true. i read on MSNBC the other day that the registry was getting flooded by these emails which are baseless.

no cell companies will be providing lists of your cell numbers.

call your cell phone company if you don't believe me.

[meat12]

OMG if I ever got a telemarketer call on my cell I'd flip out

[Puddles]

I just got a call from a 1-800 number this morning and ignored it. Wonder if it was a telemarketer?

I looked at the website and it's a .gov website. I don't like connecting my phone number and e-mail addy to the government. Anyone else think this is weird?

[sana]

it was actually from the washington post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...mailed&sub=new

Bogus E-Mail Worries Users Of Cell Phones

By Caroline E. Mayer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 10, 2004; Page E01


The e-mails, often forwarded by friends, vary in wording, but the underlying message is always ominous: Soon, all cell phone numbers will be made public to telemarketing firms. That means, according to one version, that "your cell phone may start ringing off the hook with telemarketers" and your precious, limited cell phone minutes will be eaten up with calls you don't want.

It's not clear where the e-mails originated, but industry and government officials say they are an urban myth; they are not true. There is no list of cell phone numbers being turned over to telemarketers, and telemarketers are barred from calling cell phone numbers.

Even so, in the past two weeks, more than 3 million numbers have been added to the government's national do-not-call list, and government officials suspect that the unexpected increase is due to the e-mails that are being passed around like a national game of telephone tag.

"It's driving registration numbers big time," said Lois Greisman, the Federal Trade Commission official who oversees the anti-telemarketing registry. The list took effect in October 2003, and since the initial flood of registrations, about 200,000 numbers have been added to the list each week, she said. But two weeks ago, close to 1 million numbers were posted to the list; another 2 million were added last week, she said. Today, a total of 69 million phone numbers are on the registry. Telemarketers risk fines of up to $11,000 for every number they call on the list.

Greisman called the e-mails "very odd," adding, "It is not malicious because it's giving correct registration information. But it's causing anxiety, and there shouldn't be anxiety."

The distress appears to stem from a plan, unveiled this fall, by several cell phone companies to set up national directory assistance, a 411 system, for cell phone numbers. Sprint Corp., Cingular Wireless, AT&T Wireless Services Inc., Nextel Communications Inc., Alltel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. have hired Qsent Inc. to develop the directory; Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest wireless provider is not participating.

Next spring, each cell phone company will begin asking its customers if they want their numbers included in the wireless directory, according to Qsent spokesman Jeff Fishburn. Inclusion is free, but customers have to choose, or opt in, to have their number in the directory. The directory is not expected to be activated until next fall at the earliest.

"The wireless 411 service will not be made into a list that will be sold to third parties," Fishburn said. "It will not be made into a phone book and not be available online on the Internet. The only way for a consumer to get a wireless phone number in the future is to call 411 and ask for someone, and then they will be given the option of the landline or wireless number."

The cost to obtain a wireless number will be the same as that for a landline, ranging from 50 cents to $1.25, depending on the customer's telephone company and state. "It's too expensive for telemarketers," even if they were permitted to call cell phones, Fishburn said.

Since the first telemarketing rules were adopted in 1991, the Federal Communications Commission has barred solicitors from using automated dialers to call cell phones, the predominant way telemarketers make their calls.

"Nothing will change for consumers, whether there is a directory or not," said FCC spokeswoman Rosemary Kimball.

Telemarketing officials say companies review their lists twice a month to eliminate any cell phone numbers, as FCC rules require. Even without such a rule, "we don't want to call people's cell phones," said Tim Searcy, head of the American Teleservices Association, which represents call centers. "We know it eats up their minutes, annoys them, and the likelihood of them buying anything is very low. It would be a waste of our time."

Yet the mere prospect was enough to get people to add their cell number to the national registry -- as well as pass along the e-mail. Mallory Walker, head of the real estate lending firm Walker & Dunlop in Bethesda, signed up immediately after he received the disconcerting e-mail this week. Then, he forwarded the message to more than 100 other people, friends and employees. "I can't tell you how many people called me and thanked me," he said.

Some of the e-mails say that consumers have to sign up by Dec. 15 or forever lose the opportunity. That's wrong, said the FTC's Greisman. "There is no deadline; there never has been a deadline to register."

If consumers are concerned, Greisman said they may register their cell phone numbers, either by signing up on the Internet, at www.donotcall.gov, or by calling 888-382-1222. Consumers signing up by phone need to call from the phone they want to add to the list.

[dreamgirl]

Originally posted by Puddles
I just got a call from a 1-800 number this morning and ignored it. Wonder if it was a telemarketer?

I looked at the website and it's a .gov website. I don't like connecting my phone number and e-mail addy to the government. Anyone else think this is weird?

I've started getting a couple of pre-recorded messages from some law company telling me it's important that I call. It leaves me voice mail all the time and I think I am getting a message and it's this. They've probably already called me like 20 times in the past 3 months.

Puddles, to me I don't get funny about the gov having my cell #... all they are gonna hear is what time I get home... what my kids did that day... or what events we are teaching at gymnastics... not too interesting... lol

[Timma]

It's bad enough that I don't have a home phone. If they started calling my cell phone i'd flip.

[sana]

Originally posted by dreamgirl
I've started getting a couple of pre-recorded messages from some law company telling me it's important that I call. It leaves me voice mail all the time and I think I am getting a message and it's this. They've probably already called me like 20 times in the past 3 months.

Puddles, to me I don't get funny about the gov having my cell #... all they are gonna hear is what time I get home... what my kids did that day... or what events we are teaching at gymnastics... not too interesting... lol

i would advise you call the law firm back. as the article states, the email you recieved is an urban myth.

[sana]

Originally posted by Timma
It's bad enough that I don't have a home phone. If they started calling my cell phone i'd flip.

read the article from the wash post, it's not true.

[meat12]

Originally posted by Timma
It's bad enough that I don't have a home phone. If they started calling my cell phone i'd flip.

same here...don't have a home phone either. ...can't stand those calls

[bad14u]

Originally posted by Timma
It's bad enough that I don't have a home phone. If they started calling my cell phone i'd flip.

:agree: I thought I was the only one that did this!

[Bouncer]

Well I have free incomming with Nextel so it wouldnt cost me anything. If they call me I will just do what I always do and tell them to fuck off. But as sana said, the email is not real so I wouldnt be putting my number on some list.

[meat12]

Yeah I would think that the list is what they are using to get the cell #'s

[sana]

Originally posted by meat12
Yeah I would think that the list is what they are using to get the cell #'s

that IS the national do not call registry list. it is legit. that's where you would go to register your home phone.

just there's no need for you to go register your cell and the post that dg made is false - there is no plan on giving the cell phone numbers out to telemarketers.

[Timma]

After the third time we got you sana. :P