FYI - Do Not Call Registry for your cell!

[PowerPlay 14]

This is legitimate. It is by the Federal Trade Commission. You have to use your cell phone for this to work.

The National Directory of Cell Phone Numbers is about to be published.

Once this happens telemarketers will have access to your cell phone number.

Because the majority of us rely on our cell phones for business use, this will be extremely disruptive. These calls will also use our cellular minutes. In a few weeks, cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls.

Call this number from you cell phone

888-382-1222. It is the national

Do Not Call

List. It blocks your number for 5 years. Please pass on to anyone that might have been missed.

[PressurePros 248]

I put my home number on the do not call list and I still get solicitations.. anyone else have this problem?

[Mike 64]

The cell phone thing is just a rumor. It was started last fall and was spread around in emails telling people that they had until December 15th, 2004 to add their cell phones to the do not call list. FCC regulations prohibit telemarketers from adding cell phone numbers to automatic dialers which they all use. You can add your cell phone # to the do not call list though.

Ken, you can report companies that are not following the do not call list guidelines and they will face fines from the fcc. Some "not for profit" organizations like the PAL and others are exempt from the do not call list guidelines.

[Mike 64]

This is from the Federal Trade Commission Web site: (www.ftc.gov)

The conflicting approaches to telemarketing calls to cell phones taken by the FTC and the FCC illustrate the whimsical results of the competing telemarketing rules. The FCC's telephone solicitation rule prohibits the use of autodialers to make calls to cellular telephones,7 effectively prohibiting telemarketing calls to cellular telephones. Despite this prohibition, in a press release dated December 10,2004, the FTC indicated that the national do not call registry accepts both home phone numbers and cell phone numbers, prompting many individuals to register their cell phones even though, from a practical standpoint, telemarketing companies are prohibited from placing telemarketing calls to cell phones under the FCC rule. The uploading of these additional cell phone numbers to telemarketers' databases takes significant resources and is unnecessary because telemarketers already scrub their telephone lists for cell phone numbers in order to comply with the FCC's regulations.

In practice, the FTC is requiring telemarketers to scrub their call lists against those numbers twice, once as part of the do not call lists and again when their lists are scrubbed for cell phone numbers under the FCC rule. This process increases compliance costs with no practical benefit. This duplicative process is not in the best interests of consumers, who ultimate bear unnecessary increases in marketing costs.

[crispy crittr 14]

Here is a link to snopes about this.

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

When I registered my home phone with the national do not call list the calls stopped within days. I would come home and find at least two "consolidate your credit cards" pitches on the answer machine and several other calls on the caller I.D. There is nothing now. Who "woulda thunk".

Have a great Easter everyone,

Chuck