Telemarketers are going to call my Cell Phone!

A member asks…

Hi Chris, I received this email and am not sure if it’s for real. Can you tell me whether I should do something about it or not? Thanks!

Subject: cell phone numbers go public this month…
REMEMBER: Cell Phone Numbers Go Public this 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

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 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 must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number.

HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON. It takes about 20 seconds.

https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

When it comes to email warnings (about anything really), almost all of them are either false alarms, scams, phishing attempts, or old/outdated news. We recommend to everyone to treat all email that warns you about something with great suspicion, regardless of who it comes from.

In this particular case, this warning combines some truth with some falsehood (always a good ploy to confuse people):

• The truth: There is a Do Not Call registry, and both the phone number and hyperlink that email provides are the right ones
• The falsehood: Cell phone numbers aren’t being sent to telemarketers or anyone else.

This is simply a fake scare email. It’s nicer than some, in that it doesn’t get you to go online somewhere you should not, but what it tells you to do is worthless.

We get fake warning messages all the time, and we dutifully ignore them all. Occasionally we might check one out (especially when our clients ask us!). A good source is Snopes.com and another one is to simply google search on some of the words of the message – you’ll usually see results that point to a scam or fake warning.