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According to an article on TechWeb, the FTC is saying that recent rumors are indeed just rumors… and that cell phone numbers are not being released in any way to telemarketers.  Here’s a statement from the FTC that was posted in the article:

"Contrary to the e-mail, cell phone numbers are NOT being released to telemarketers, and you will NOT soon be getting telemarketing calls on your cell phone." -FTC quote from TechWeb

Are they actually being 100% truthful here?  I’ve had my cell phone numbers on the Do Not Call list since it was activated back in June 2003, so I rarely get any telemarketing calls.  My fiance, on the other hand, has a completely different experience.

She has a cell phone from both Cingular and Verizon, both of which have really spiked in the past 2-3 months in the number of telemarketing calls coming in.  And this is during "peak" hours too, coming off of our plan minutes.  She does not give out either cell phone number when signing up for anything, when out shopping, or anything else of that nature.

In just the past week she has probably had a dozen telemarketing calls between her two cell phones.  I have since added her numbers to the Do Not Call registry, but it takes up to a month to take effect.  And even then there are still plenty of groups allowed to call you.

I honestly don’t know if her numbers have been "given out" somehow or another, or what… but this has really begun to get ridiculous.  The FTC has a very loose definition of "telemarketing", with plenty of non-profit, political, etc groups slipping through the cracks and not being considered telemarketers. 

I honestly don’t care who you are… if you’ve got a cure for cancer sitting in your lap but need a little more funding, you can call my house phone that has unlimited talking time.  Don’t call my cell phone that has a set number of minutes each month to try to pursuade me to buy your product or make a donation.  That is just going to piss me off and make me inform everyone of your bad practices.

Chris Leckness (3531 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

Chris Leckness is the Owner/Administrator of Mobilitysite. He is a Microsoft MVP, Mobile Devices and a member of the exclusive focus group, Mobius. Chris runs a Mobilitysite, GotZune, and a few other smaller sites and blogs. His personal blog is chris.leckness.com.