There's a rampant rumor about cell phones and telemarketers circling the internet via blog sites and emails.  DailyTech even received a news suggestion on the topic.  It reads something, like:

In just 4 days from today all U. S. cell phone numbers will be released to telemarketing companies and you will begin to receive sales calls. You will be charged for these calls! Even if you do not answer, the telemarketer will end up in your voice mail and you will be charged for all of the minutes the incoming (usually recorded) message takes to complete. You will then also be charged when you call your voice mail to retrieve your messages.

To prevent this, call 888-382-1222 from your cell phone. This is the national DO NOT CALL list; it takes only a minute to register your cell phone number and it blocks most telemarketers calls for five years.

So what's the only problem?  The rumor is total rubbish.

Rumor debunking site Snopes.com has collected similar emails dating back to 2004, all with similarly dire warnings.  The site believes that the warnings started when the largest cell phone providers -- Alltel, AT&T Wireless, Cingular, Nextel, Sprint PCS, and T-Mobile -- several years ago banded together to create a national directory of cell phone users for 411 use.  The exodus of customers from land lines to cell phones made such a directory highly attractive.  The companies hired Qsent, Inc. to create the directory and since the task has been passed on to TransUnion.

However, extreme limitations were put on this directory to prevent abuse.  First customers had to specifically opt in, and telecoms could not add users without a specific request, and no fees would be assessed to add or delete customers.  Many of these provisions are doubly protected by laws that have since been passed.  Further, it is still illegal for most telemarketers to call consumer cell phones.  Lastly, it should be noted that the 411 directory would never be printed or distributed.

Amazingly, like the chain letter writers of the days of yore, the alarmists continue to crawl out each year and litter the internet with these uninformed warnings.  Today, one such warning made the front page of Google News' Sci/Tech section (see picture).  All this panic comes despite Qsent/TransUnion never having finished the 411 directory, let alone making any attempt to open it to telemarketers.  This spam only serves to accentuate a trusty old adage -- don't believe everything you read on the internet.