This is a copy of an e-mail that was forwarded to me by a friend; it reads:

“Remember: cell phone numbers go public next month. Reminder….all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls. You will be charged for these calls, even if the message is saved on your phone, you will be charged for the minutes you listen to it. To prevent this, call this number from your cell, call 888-382-1222. It is the national do not call list. It will only take a minute of your time. It blocks your number for five (5) years. You have to call from the cell # that you want blocked. You cannot call from a different number. Help others by passing this on to all your friends … it takes about 20 seconds.”

As I read this, I began to get suspicious as to its content. So I went to my cell phone service provider to check its validity; the provider knew nothing about it. The message did not come from a valid, researchable or reliable source. Another thing that stood out was the fact that you had to call from the cell number you wanted to block.

Here is the real bell ringer: the number is not a government number. It says it only takes about 20 seconds. It doesn’t take that long for the caller ID to get your number.

The way I see it is, whoever this is can complie a list of these numbers by area code and sell it to telemarketing companies in the areas of interest to them. A simple Microsoft program will do the work for them.

Cell phone service providers would not release these numbers to the public, as it would cost them customers. Personally, I would cancel my service if they did this and take them to court if they tried to bill me for early cancellation of my contract.

After all I got to be 66 years old without it and I can live out the rest of my days without it. It is really a luxury I can easily go on without. Its like blindly accepting to collect call.

This is a scam.

Larry Turner,
Madera

This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 1:02 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.