Cell Phone Directory for Telemarketers Myth
There has been a longstanding fear amongst cell phone users, who worried that as cellular technology grew, the risk of pesky telemarketers calling your mobile phone would increase as well. Unfortunately, there are indeed ways that telemarketers can obtain your cellular number (or at least find ways to call it through an auto dialer). However, for the most part, cellular users can dispel their worry and stress. Much of the negative publicity about cell phone users being at risk for sales calls is false.
To clarify, let us look at some of the myths and non-myths about cell phones and telemarketers.
Myth 1: Telemarketers will soon be granted access to all cellular phone numbers.
Rest easy, as this myth is entirely false. Talks of a mass cell phone directory have been bounced around since 2004, and nothing has ever come to fruition. Furthermore, all planned mass cell phone directories would only include cell phone users on a voluntary basis. In addition, these directories would not be made available to telemarketers, and the commercial use of cell phone lookup would be unlawful.
Myth 2: Telemarketers can find out my identity and location using just my cell phone.
Theoretically, any company or individual can find out your name and address via a reverse cell phone lookup. However, you do not have to worry about businesses starting a massive reverse cell phone directory trend, calling your cellular at all hours of the day. Instead, they have other more cost-effective ways to find customers.
Telemarketing is a profitable mode of sales because it is so cost-efficient. All you need is a phone plan and a few cheap laborers - making it much more inexpensive than advertising or paper mailers. Telemarketers purchase large bulks of landline phone number information, providing them with more than sufficient data to make their pesky calls. Subsequently, it would be counterintuitive for telemarketers to go out of their way to obtain cell phone numbers. The point of this type of sales model is to minimize initial expenses.
Myth 3: All telemarketing calls to cell phones are illegal.
Unfortunately, telemarketing calls are only illegal in some states. Some interpret the laws to render telemarketing calls to cell phones as illegal under FCC codes, but many companies argue that it is lawful if the cell phone is the customer's only phone. Federal code is up for debate, but one thing is certain: many states have indeed created laws to prevent telemarketing calls to cell phones.
Telemarketers can always call your cellular phone by using an auto dialer. An auto dialer basically is a machine that dials random numbers until it gets a live person. Companies that play sales messages that instruct you to "dial one to speak to a representative" often use this type of technology, which is why these types of calls are beginning to strike cellular users more frequently.
Unfortunately, pesky sales calls will always be a part of most people's lives. For the time being, however, they are not yet a regular part of most cell phone users' lives.