Released: October 13, 2007

Agency warns of cellphone scam

Source: Christopher S. Rugaber, Associated Press

An e-mail warning consumers that cellphone numbers will soon be released to telemarketers is making the rounds again, and government officials have a key detail they’d like to add: it’s totally bogus.

The e-mails say that recipients must add their cellphone numbers to the federal government’s Do Not Call registry by a certain deadline in order to avoid being deluged by telemarketing calls.

But there is no deadline, cellphone numbers aren’t about to be released to telemarketers and it is already illegal for most telemarketers to call mobile phones, the Federal Trade Commission said Friday.

It’s against the law for telemarketers to use automated dialing to reach cellphones, pagers or any other service in which the recipient has to pay for the call. Automated dialing is used by most telemarketers.

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