Cell phone numbers still kept a secret

Cell phone numbers still kept a secret
BAY AREA: Officials debunk e-mails warning of information release to telemarketers
By Denis Cuff
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
A wave of e-mails is spreading a false alarm that cell phone users across the United States are about to be deluged with telemarketing calls.

The e-mails -- of unknown origin and widely distributed -- are wrong in stating that wireless phone numbers are about to be released to telemarketers so they can make sales calls, federal regulators and phone company spokespeople said Tuesday.

"It's an urban myth," said Art Navarro, a Cingular Wireless spokesman.

"No truth to it," Mitch Katz, a Federal Trade Commission spokesman, said of the e-mails that have been popping up in waves for more than a year.

Placing telemarketing calls to cell phones is illegal in most cases, the Federal Communications Commission wrote in an advisory posted on its Web site.

The e-mails may have been sparked by a misunderstanding of talks in the cell phone industry about possibly creating a national 411 directory for cell numbers, similar to the existing one for wired phones.

No cell phone directory has been created, but if it was, telemarketers are barred from placing prerecorded calls to pagers and mobile or cell phones of customers who get charged for the calls, the FTC says.

A cell phone number might turn up on telemarketing lists if a consumer gives it to a retailer. Consumers Union advises people to add cell phone numbers to the do-not-call list as a precaution.

List additions can be made by calling 888-382-1222 or visiting www.donotcall.gov.