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Telemarketers to Target Cell Phones

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the brace-for-impact dept.

sik puppy writes "According to this article on msnbc, telemarketers may soon be targeting cell phones." The article discusses how some of these will be accidental, but others will be in response to things like the do-not-call registry.

6 of 452 comments (clear)

  1. Been getting SMS spam for years already by hattig · · Score: 3, Informative

    In the UK we've been getting SMS spam messages for years already.

    Of course, the cost of sending these messages means that you don't get many, and they won't come with a 150KB attachment for no good reason.

    1. Re:Been getting SMS spam for years already by Teun · · Score: 3, Informative

      A big difference between Europe and the US is that in Europe you don't pay (call minutes) for incoming calls or messages (as long as you are within your own country).

      --
      "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  2. Ha! by TheBeardIsRed · · Score: 5, Informative

    (Pardon My referencing of the US code, i'm not a lawyer and thus don't know the proper way to cite things)

    Title 47, Chapter 5, Subchapter II, Part I, Section 227, Article b, Item 1, Subitem B, Instance iii

    It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States to make any call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice to any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call;

    Thus anyone using an auto-dialer (i.e. 99% of telemarketers) are inviolation of the law and subject to a $500 fine in small claims court.

    See these for more info:
    http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/47/227.html
    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/05/116238 &mode=thread&tid=126&tid=111&tid=99&tid=12 3
    http://www.panix.com/~eck/telemarket.html

  3. Legal Analysis Wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    The MSNBC article quotes an attorney who says that it would be illegal to use an automatic machine to leave a message on a cell phone, but that live calls are acceptable. The attorney missed a key point of the law. Title 47, Chapter 5, Subchapter II, Part I, Sec. 227 restricts the use of automated telephone equipment, including automated dialers. It is illegal to use an automated dialer (equipment that has the capacity to store or produce telephone numbers to be called using a random or sequential number generator and can dial those numbers) to call a wireless phone. Thus, if telemarketers are going to go after cell phones, they will have to dial the cell phone numbers individually, without the use of a automatic telephone dialing system.

  4. You can register cell #s on the do-not-call list by Arjuna+Theban · · Score: 2, Informative

    I don't think they get the point that the national do-not-call registry allows cell phone numbers to be registered.

    My cell number was registered on the list as soon as it was started. Telemarketers would have a nice $11k fine if they called me on it.

    -bm

  5. Do Not Call... by LightningTH · · Score: 2, Informative
    On the front page of the Do Not Call list states

    You can register your home and mobile phone numbers for free


    I dont plan on having any telemarketers calling my cell.