Jun 29 2006
Prev/Next Posts: « Bad Superman || NASA funding not cut by Rep. Frank »
Your cell phone is safe from telemarketers
There is an email getting spread around by lots of people that in a few days, telemarketers will get access to everyone’s cell phone numbers, and that if you answer your phone you’ll get charged.
This rumor is false.
When you hear something like this, especially when it’s a forwarded email, always check snopes.com first. They have the real scoop on this, and show that this is a misunderstanding of what’s going on with cell phone companies and directories.
I’m sure some scam will come along eventually to try to scam people using cell phones, but this time, at least, we’re safe.
If you get e-mail like this and find it false from Snopes.com, send the person who sent you the e-mail the link to the appropriate Snopes.com article. I have found that doing this is very effective in reducing such time wasters. Though I still get a few from my uncle.
I did, actually.
Then I decided this might get it circulated even more.
I’m certain that Snopes.com will appreciate the endorsement. I always check weird e-mail claims and petitions there when I recieve them.
I regularly refer people to snopes or wherever my source is (BadAstronomy.com perhaps :-)in response to forwarded email legends and hoaxes. Sometimes I feel a little wary of replying to all when there is a long list of recipients. It is a balance between politely pointing out a hoax and disseminating the information to everyone who recieved the email and embarrassing the sender who sent it out to all those people.
I’ve had only a mobile phone for nearly a year now and I love it. The only people who call me are those to whom I’ve given my number! It’s never a waste to answer. (Well, except for the wrong numbers. But there are very few of those!)
It’s more work, but I’ve tended to blind-cc: the whole list with Snopes links — that way it doesn’t (knowingly) embarrass the sender and doesn’t rely on the recipient to get the word out. After a few years of debunking every e-mail scam and petition and warning and hoax, though, I no longer get more than one alert every few months; I don’t know whether that’s because I’ve made my friends smarter or because I’ve proven myself to be fatally obnoxious!
I tend not to get a lot of Snopes-worthy spam. It’s about 5 prescription drug spams for 133t-sp34k3rs per week.
Downside: I don’t get a lot of online jokes in my inbox, either.
I think life’s too short to broadcast corrections, unless - perhaps - it’s a case where significant good or avoidance of harm can arise from making the effort. Like for a vaccine scare, maybe - if you’re sure of your own facts - or if someone’s sending an “anti-virus update” which is actually a virus. Otherwise, just send the correction to the friend who sent you the original, and leave the rest to them. After all, a lot of those other people aren’t people that you know.
Interesting. There’s a growing kind of scam at least in Europe and Australia(where I am) where your mobile phone rings just once and then stops. Most times you don’t even notice it’s rung until later when you notice your phone saying “missed call”. So you call back thinking it’s a friend, but you get a recorded message telling you that you’ve won a $40 prize and telling you to call another number to claim it. Of course the new number has expensive time charges.
Pretty much everyone I know has gotten this kind of mobile spam at least once - many more than once. It doesn’t cost the spammers anything since they when they call they hang up to soon to answer - even if you were holding the phone.
How the spammers get everyone’s numbers is unknown but it is known that they boast that they can contact every mobile in Australia. Perhaps they just use a random dialler.
I’m suprised that you guys don’t have this crap yet, but I’m sure you’ll get it soon.
No problem here. If the number displayed on the screen is not one of people that I have given my number to, I don’t answer!
I did experience an interesting situation concerning telemarketeers and my cell phone. I received a rash of text messages from various telemarketeers in the area and now all text messages to my phone are blocked.
Robert Carnegie said: “just send the correction to the friend who sent you the original, and leave the rest to them. After all, a lot of those other people aren’t people that you know.”
I feel that statements like that are some of the reasons the world is in the state it’s in today. The reality is that we do things that affect hundreds of people we don’t know every day of our lives. My opinion: It’s much better for everyone when an individual, no matter who, steps up and speaks the truth. Even if, in your response to the individual, you ask that person to tell everyone that got the message the truth, there are fair odds that the message won’t be sent.
So, when I have checked out snopes and send my response back to the indiidual who sent it, I make sure everyone is blind copied, and I mention that not blind copying people in the first place is a violation of their privacy.
I received email from a friend that cell phone numbers were being released to telemarketing companies. I was given phone # 888-382-1222 to call to prevent this. I called and the responder sounded legit. But I have been receiving multiple calls from Publishers Clearing House & a charity [Police]. I answered only once on each, but they are constantly showing up on my missed call list. The Police shows [no number] & PCH shows an 800. I’m not sure how to stop this.