Cell Phone Directory Coming Soon

applemasker writes "According to this story on Yahoo News via the L.A. Times, an upcoming cell phone directory which supposedly includes 75% of all cell users is in the works. Some people are already receiving cell phone spam and telemarketing calls. Worse yet, unless you opt-out at the beginning of your contract, some carriers such as T-Mobile can gladly hand over your info (though the article says that T-Mobile is changing the contract now). Some good news though, Verizon Wireless has said that it will not share its customer lists. Still, maybe it's time to submit your cell number to the Do Not Call List if you haven't done so already." We had a related story last year.

Comments

Maybe I'm Naive but.....

[MacGod]

Maybe I'm naieve, but I personally think this would be a good idea. Telemarketers are irriting, no question, but worse still is losing a phone number and being unable to find it. I don't have to refer to the phone-book too often for landlines, but every time I do, it saves me mucho effort or results in me being able to contact someone I otherwise would not be able to.

Terrible!!!!!

[Mz6]

With the abundance of web pages that allow users to simply type in a cell-phone number and a text message, I feel this might be a huge mistake publishing all of these numbers. How long would it take for a spam bot to cultivate through the database, pick-up all the numbers and spam them? My guess is that it shouldn't take more than a day to do.

"Wireless carriers say they doubt there will be widespread abuse. They point out that most mobile phones come equipped with caller ID, distinctive ring tones, call blocking and other tools to manage unwanted calls. And several carriers say they have made refunds to subscribers who have received unwanted calls. "

What they fail to understand is that, atleast with my carrier (Sprint), text messages pop up all the time. I have no options to block text messages from certain users, or only allow messages from those in my phone book. I think the biggest area won't be the unwanted calls, but rather the unwanted text messages that cost about as much as it does to send spam messages.

By far.. Worst idea EVER!

Jerks

[thebra]

Until recently, when customers switched carriers, their numbers changed as well, so marketers were reluctant to invest much in compiling databases.

For once I thought that something good was being done for the consumer...my mistake.

Verizon sucks

[-tji]

Verizon already phone spams their own customers.

About a month ago, I got one of those annoying automated calls offering me "great new services" through Verizon. The recording said "Push 1 for more information".

So, I pushed '1' and waded went through several levels of systems until I could talk to a human. I asked him to set all my privacy preferences to prohibit any further calls or sharing of my personal information, and he was totally lost at how to proceed. He acted as if this was an unprecedented request.. "I don't have any idea how I could do that. We don't have any settings for that in the user accounts."

After spending 30 minutes on the phone with this guy, I was pissed to have wasted so much time and just wanted to hang up. But he agreed to submit some paper form that was supposed to ensure this did not happen again.. He did not inspire a lot of confidence, but I haven't gotten another call.. yet.

Re:Do Not Call List

[ericspinder]

I still get sales calls on phone sometimes, they say that they are "surveys" and once an extermination service called just "because someone in the area needed their service". Those kind of calls are allowed by the DNC list. Trust me you will see more and more of them and with cell phone number avaiable, they might be hitting them hard. Right now telemarketers have a good list of people who will take the time to listen, but cell phones are a fresh market. Heck there are many teenagers and young adult who only use cell phones, they will want to tap that market. If the value of this fresh market is judged by the telemarketers to be greater than the costs (fines), we'll be seeing bunches of calls on our once private numbers, at least until it levels out.

I still use the same old line that I used before the DNC list "I do not ever, ever respond in any way to unsolisited telephone calls of any type. Please take me off your list and I hope that you have a nice day ".