Is this real?

I just got this message from a friend...is it actual, or is it one of those urban legend things? I certainly don't want my minutes burned up by a telemarketer, but don't want to pass along false info.



In the coming weeks, CELL PHONE numbers are being released to
telemarketing companies and you will start to receive tele-sales calls. If
you want to kick this to the curb before it starts, call this number from
your cell phone 888-382-1222. It is the National Do Not Call list.
It blocks your number for 5 years and only takes you about 23 seconds to
complete the process.

I heard something on the news about it but dont remember anything they said. Verizon is not going to be involved at all in giving out/selling cel phone numbers so Im safe so far.

If you still want to register your phone, go the the do not call website and register your cel phone there. I dont trust phone numbers when you really dont know where its coming from. The website, if I remember right, has a link/area that you can use to register your celphone also.

Here's a little more information:

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

I listed mine, my husbands and sons cell phones in the Do Not Call registry. Figured it doesn't hurt. Did that back in Feb. when we moved and got a new home phone #.

If this is true it makes me angry. For the reason that you have to pay for these minutes and also because they have no right to do this.

Could it be a scam that when you sign up for the do not call list they are infact collecting your information to be used for what you want to avoid in the first place?

When I answer my landline phone and there is a long pause or when I hear a lot of voces in the background I hangup. Both are sure signs that it is some sort of sales/boiler room call. I do not speak, apologize, respond in any way once I recognize the purpose of the call.

This does not eliminate calls but at least I cut my time to a minimum. Rude? I intend to be and hope that the people working this job will become discouraged and take other employment.

Not entirely related to the topic at hand, but my FIL always tells sales callers that now is not a good time and could he get their home phone # and call them back later. That usually shuts them up. LOL

Continuing this slight hijack... Prior to the availability of caller id, I had a coworker who would listen to the spiel for a bit, then if he couldn't get a word in edgewise, would ask the telemarketer if they could hold. At that point, he walked away until the recorded 'phone lady' started talking and/or he heard the phone beeping to be returned to its cradle. That was one of the *nicest* things he did! lol

Back to topic now. Telemarketting can and does work, else it would no longer be used to promote products and services. I choose to research before I buy, so I've never been a good sell on the phone and prefer not to waste either my time or that of a telemarketter. :)

With all the money scams and such, I wouldn't give my info over the phone to a telemarketer.

I went ahead and put my number on the Do Not Call List, for any and all phones.

I have had my landline forwarded to my cell phone for years. I get the caller ID and all the perks on the cell phone so I don't have to pay for the extras on the landline.

With caller ID, if I don't know who the caller is, I don't answer it. If it is important or business, the party leaves a message and I call back. I rarely have a telemarketer leave a message, although a few times I have had a machine leave my machine a message. (I'll get my machine to call them back LOL)

My cell phone has a different ring for "Number Not Available" calls, a different ring for "Restricted Number" calls and then all identified numbers have the melody I selected. This certainly keeps me from getting down off that ladder to answer the phone.

So most of the problems are solved, except for that ringing is using up my battery power.

Molly

You all should live in Kentucky. About 3 years ago the legislature passed a bill requiring the Attorney General to set up a "Do not call list". This then had to be checked before any telemarketing calls were made to that number. This has elimated virtually all of our "unwanted telemarketing calls." There are some charities that are still allowed to call, but you have to have been a contributor to this charity before they can contact you. Talk to your legislators about copying Ky's telemarketing law. It works.

Oregon also set up a "Do Not Call" directory prior to the US Gov't one. The main difference was that there was a charge of something like $6.25 per year to get on and stay on it. I don't know what happened to the Oregon one after the national one came out. At the time the national list was being formed, I put both my home phone and my cell phone on so I haven't had to worry about sales calls. We do get charity calls, and did get political calls, on our home phone, but caller ID takes care of a lot of them. I love called ID!

Dotti

We atill get more phone calls for the people who had this phone number over 8 years ago than we do for ourselves. DH thinks they are bill collectors. We always let the answering machine pick up before we will answer the phone. Still, it's annoying because I have to stop what I am doing and go into the room where the phone is, just in case it is not an undesirable call. Political candidate calls have gotten to be a pain. We have a mayoral election coming up. I've gotten 4 calls from one candidate and no calls from the other. If I was going to vote, guess who I would vote for?

The bill collector, Kelli? Just a wild guess here. ;)

Hi, WI has one also, what a relief;now if it would just work during election time.

We registered for the national Do Not Call list and it works-- except for charities and political calls. It keeps the scams away! Many of our calls for for the Emergency Vet, whose phone number is one digit off from ours. At least we can give them the correct number.

I NEVER trust e-mails, though. We never send forwards, because a lot of those are scams to get e-mail lists for spam, at least according to my husband, who is a programmer. Just about every e-mail forward I've looked into has been false, which reinforces my husband's claim.

My daughter and family all have their phones registered on the Do Not Call List and Clark Howard, the money man on radio, says to use the list. Verizon is safe.

When we watch two shows during "rest up from gardening/cocktail time" (yes, we are retired), I take the portable phone off the hook and put it under a pillow in the guest room. We've told people, for years, not to call between 6 and 7:30 but if I don't take it off the hook someone is always calling. The irrigation guys accidentally cut through our phone line about two weeks ago and it took 5 days to get it back: I never missed it.

BellSouth recently tried an end-run around the do-not-call list. When they called, it was a pre-recorded message asking me to please hold, which I did. Only to hear a pre-recorded message asking me to call 1-800-xxx-xxxx, with a very fast "this will be a promotional message" tagline at the end.

First off, that was annoying - we were in the middle of changing to voice-over-IP and cancelling our BellSouth, or I wouldn't have answered the call at all - I pay my bill promptly and they ordinarily have no reason to call me.

But to make matters worse, they then called me TWICE the next day (of course I didn't call the 1-800 number to get a sales pitch, duh!) And it was a flat-out telemarketing call for their new high-speed DSL "now available in our neighborhood!"

I told both reps to put me BACK on their do-not-call list (which I'm already on) and the second one had the audacity to tell me it could take up to 40 days to occur. I realize hard-working people are trying to make a living doing telemarketing, and it probably isn't their ideal career opportunity, which is why I didn't come completely unglued at that point. Had I had my wits about me, I would have had her manager on the phone and his or her tail in a ringer with a very real threat to pursue a federal fine for their nefarious activities. We signed up for the do-not-call registry when it first came out, and I'll be hanged if I'm happy that companies are circumventing it. Grrrr...

How do the telemarketers stand their job????! I don't think any one has to put up with as many annoyed people as they do.

Thanks for the tip on National Do not call for cell phones.
Usually I keep mine off, and only use it occasionally.

As for my landline phones. One I use only for dial up for the internet. It's unlisted, has its own tone ring, so any telemarketer calling this line gets only a continuous ring until they hang up.

My other regular line, before I answer it, the person calling needs to identify themselves before I pickup the phone, otherwise their calls go directly to the answering machine, if I don't know that person or if its a telemarketer, the voice mail message gets deleted.

This method works fine for me, and I never have to involve myself with unwanted phone calls.

DougC

Be careful when you sign up for a credit card or finance/lease a car what you check on the forms- if you agree to these calls on those neverending financial papers, it is near impossible to get you off their sales call list.

My friend leased her Honda and they call with new incentives relentlessly.

Same with something as simple as a Sears credit card. Once you sign an agreement with them you are open to all of their marketing from all of their big corp branches like Discover cards or KMart snail junk mail unless you make it clear that you do not want it.

And don't forget your mortgage- most of the mortgage companies are owned by big companies like GMAC and if you agree to being contacted, you will get car offers!!!

Best defense for us, if don't know the number that is calling, don't answer the phone. Actually, DD (19) is so shy, she won't even answer calls from some out of state family members. She comes running to give me the phone or just lets them leave a msg, then calls me on my cell if I am not there.

Actually, I saw something about 2 yrs ago at WM for about $40 that's supposed to electronically tell anyone calling via computer dialing that your number is not a working number so the calls stop. If I didn't have caller ID +/or machine, then I'd prob try that.