…and this is a 
I just got a bunch of email from various people warning me that my cell phone number (no, you can't have it) is going to be sold to telemarketers next month, and I need to call a certain phone number right away to get it blocked. I must have a cynical mind, because my first thought was that if I were a telemarketer who wanted to fish up a bunch of ripe cell phone numbers, I'd send out bulk email telling people who hated telemarketers to call me on their cell phone.
I was right. I checked Snopes, and there is no proposed sell-off of cell numbers, and calling the number given won't help you in the slightest.
This has been a public service announcement. If you receive that email, do not call, just hit delete.
Comments
Posted by: Janine, OMnivore | June 11, 2009 12:14 PM
...my cell phone number (no, you can't have it)...
And here I was, thinking we were close friends.
I am devastated.
Devastated, I tell ya!
Posted by: Glen Davidson
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June 11, 2009 12:14 PM
Or are you in cahoots with the people who are going to sell off the numbers?
;)
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | June 11, 2009 12:16 PM
In other public service announcements, "Anti-Virus 2009" and "Anti-Virus XP" are not what they claim, do not install them and then call your IT Manager friend to help. And your warranty on your car is not about to expire and more than likely it is the 10th or 11th call not the 2nd.
And no one from Nigeria has any money they need to transfer to you (yes people still fall for this).
*realizes the MAC/Windows/Linux fanboi wars he may have started here.
Posted by: JackC
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June 11, 2009 12:19 PM
We're in a time warp, right? Second post of Old Info in .. well, a very short time.
I get this notice about once a year from my dad - well at least before he stopped talking to me. That one and the one about Mars...
JC
Posted by: JohnnieCanuck
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June 11, 2009 12:20 PM
I initially interpreted the post as warning of an actual phishing incident. Actually, there is no evidence of evil design presented at the Snopes page in the link. Just the usual Fwd: idiocy at work. Aphorism: do not attribute to malice, things adequately explained by incompetence.
Now if that is not the do not call number, then malice has entered the picture.
Posted by: Didac Lopez-Martinez
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June 11, 2009 12:26 PM
Very tricky. People annoyed by telemarketers can be induced by this kind of trick to give their own cell number to their very own enemies. I wonder if the Pascal's wage has something in common to this trick: feeble-minded people take the wage and pray God and a horrible superhuman malevolent deity catchs them to hell.
Posted by: SC, OM | June 11, 2009 12:28 PM
I have never, not once, received one of those emails, or any of the others that people generally talk about. I even check my spam folder looking for them. It's disappointing in a perverse way.
*pout*
I've also never been flashed. Or set foot in a Taco Bell* (not initially by design, though now that it's so longstanding I seek to preserve the record).
*OK, that's not the same sort of thing, but I felt like sharing.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | June 11, 2009 12:31 PM
Being that I am the IT god (nerd) here I see them all the time. Our spam filter is always catching them. Also a number of other ones.
Posted by: Alverant | June 11, 2009 12:33 PM
Yet another reason why I don't have a cell phone.
Posted by: ajbjasus | June 11, 2009 12:34 PM
PZ - In the UK the first directory enquiry service for mobiles (cell) phones has just gone live. Don'y know how the company got the numbers, but you actually have to opt out of it by calling a call centre.
http://www.bitterwallet.com/new-mobile-phone-directory-enquiries-service-probably-wont-kill-us-all-in-our-beds/13163
Posted by: SC, OM | June 11, 2009 12:39 PM
Sure, rub it in. :)
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | June 11, 2009 12:41 PM
Trust me, that was not rubbing it in. I'm sick of this industry.
Posted by: tsg | June 11, 2009 12:42 PM
What is? The possibility that someone might send you an email warning you of a problem that isn't real? How does not owning a cell phone stop that?
Or do you just like finding any excuse you can to mention that you don't have a cell phone?
Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own A Television
Posted by: Celtic_Evolution | June 11, 2009 12:47 PM
Being an IT manager myself, let me simply say "yeah... no shit!".
It's a royal pain in the arse. And it makes me wish there were such a thing as hell, just so I could see the crafters of this type of crap writhe in eternal agony.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | June 11, 2009 12:50 PM
My hate of spam is only slightly outweighed by my hate of our idiotic sales force who seems to think they are above reading instructional and informational emails that directly deal with workflow and business processes only they use. Which of course means they call me in a hissy about how process A or B isn't working correctly.
fuck I need a new career.
Posted by: tom | June 11, 2009 12:56 PM
I believe telemarketing to cell phones is illegal in the US in the first place.
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | June 11, 2009 12:57 PM
Are there really documented cases of people falling for the Nigerian bank-transfer scheme?
I mean, I know that my SkeptiCoTM Rip-off Detector is set to especially fine sensitivity, but...come on.
Posted by: daveau
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June 11, 2009 12:57 PM
If it is the same e-mail that I have seen, yes, the Do Not Call number/website is legit. It was set up when a cell phone directory in the US was being considered, but that plan has since been abandoned. So, yes you can have your calls blocked, but there is no pressing need.
As an IT manager, I'm not a big fan of Snopes. They're not what I would call a credible source, particularly regarding viruses.
Posted by: gaypaganunitarianagnostic | June 11, 2009 12:58 PM
I wouldn't carry a cell phone either except, they can be a HUGE help in roadside emergencies.
Posted by: George | June 11, 2009 1:09 PM
Telemarketing on cell numbers would be bad, but worse yet is texting marketing. You get hit with a fee for texts you do not want in the first place. Paying for the annoyance is beyond bad.
Posted by: Celtic_Evolution | June 11, 2009 1:15 PM
Been saying that nearly every day for about 15 years... :/
Posted by: SC, OM | June 11, 2009 1:18 PM
I can think of one potential one for you...
Posted by: dogmeatIB | June 11, 2009 1:30 PM
And no one from Nigeria has any money they need to transfer to you (yes people still fall for this).
Yeah, but the nice man who died in England leaving me 10 million dollars (oops?) is real, right?
Posted by: Lauren | June 11, 2009 1:32 PM
Damn, this is going around again? I should get it about five times from my grandmother alone... Good thing her e-mails get deleted before I even see them. Ahhh, Gmail.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | June 11, 2009 1:42 PM
I'm workin' on it. Spent a large part of this past weekend trying to make some plans to move that direction. It'll be slow but at least it's something.
and thanks
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | June 11, 2009 1:50 PM
Man. I get dozens of them every day, and that's not counting the lottery winnings. Must be because I'm on this mailing list, where the archives don't even try to conceal everyone's address… Even the websites of the journals I've published in don't hide it. We're talking 2007 and 2008 here. How naïve are they all!?!
Much of that spam is very amusing to read, BTW.
Especially when it gets meta…
Posted by: tsg | June 11, 2009 1:50 PM
Yes, and apparently there are a good number of people attempting to claim prizes from lotteries they never entered, too.
Posted by: Gruesome Rob | June 11, 2009 1:55 PM
Sort of. They can't use autodialers or recorded messages.
Posted by: Chakolate | June 11, 2009 1:57 PM
May I mention the National Do Not Call list? http://www.donotcall.gov/
You can list cell phones as well as landlines.
Posted by: jj | June 11, 2009 2:12 PM
As an IT manager myself, I can't even begin to tell you how many times my employees click on that pop-up, and BAM! screwed. That damn AV360 worm has given me so much hell in the last few months...
And they don't always com in the form of an email
And if you do get it, combofix from bleepingcomputer.com does a great job.
Posted by: xebecs | June 11, 2009 2:13 PM
And the people with "Important information about your credit card" don't even know whether you have a card, let alone which one(s).
Posted by: Sarah Trachtenberg | June 11, 2009 2:21 PM
I've asked before, but no one can give me an answer...who is it who is buying the services/products that telemarketers sell? I can't imagine anyone doing so, and yet they must, and in large numbers, to create the huge demand for telemarketers!
On the Simpsons, they made prisoners do telemarketing. (Shudder)
Posted by: Cliff Hendroval | June 11, 2009 2:35 PM
Bowen's Law of The Internet: Each time an e-mail is forwarded, the chances of it being true go down 90%.
I work in a 20-person office. The cell phone e-mail has gone around here three times in the last couple of years. The first two times I sent out the Snopes article and the disclaimer from the FCC. The third time, when it came from the business owner, I just shut up.
Posted by: Celtic_Evolution | June 11, 2009 2:39 PM
RE: jj and AV 2009...
I've absolutely killed as many PCs as I've fixed using combofix... I use it only as a last resort... and not just for AV2009... it handles quite a few nasties pretty well, but it also has a nasty habit of rendering some PCs totally useless.
For AV2009, I find SuperAntiSpyware works pretty damn well, and hasn't yet blown up any PC I've worked on.
Posted by: Alyson Miers | June 11, 2009 2:40 PM
I second (third?) the pointing-out of the Do Not Call registry. My parents assure me that their junk calls went WAY down within a few months of my adding their number to the registry. It also accepts cell numbers, and the registration takes about a minute to complete.
Posted by: SteveM
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June 11, 2009 2:54 PM
Yes, the "Do Not Call" registry is real and effective for "land lines". While you can enter cell phone numbers, it really isn't necessary as it is illegal to use autodialers to call cell phones anyway. The people at "your automobile warranty is about to expire" don't care that it is illegal and have been charged in several states, but they keep doing it anyway.
Posted by: Qwerty | June 11, 2009 3:03 PM
I laugh when they call to "consolidate" my credit card debt when I have no debt.
Posted by: Draken | June 11, 2009 3:06 PM
There have been some cases in the media, and I think it's safe to assume there are many more unpublished. Given the sheer amount of scams sent out, it's only a matter of time before someone takes the bait.
Arguably, people whose ISP catches most spam are more vulnerable than people who are regularly exposed, simply because they do not realise what's hitting them.
Posted by: inkadu | June 11, 2009 3:08 PM
Not only do I not have a cell phone OR tv, I also do not have a computer or an internet connection.
In fact, I just use the library's connection in order to inform people of how pristine I am.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | June 11, 2009 3:10 PM
Haven't used that. I use Malwarebytes a fair amount for various things and it usually does a good job.
Honestly if one of my sales force gets AV2009 I just re-image the damn box. less painful most of the time.
Posted by: northern virginia | June 11, 2009 3:12 PM
A wise person once told me that nothing ever dies on the Internet. Phishing scams you're deleting today, will come back around in another year or so.
Posted by: John Phillips, FCD
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June 11, 2009 3:17 PM
@Sven DiMilo, ignoring the number of people who have lost a lot of money, people have actually been killed and seriously injured by 419 scammers (labelled from the code for the crime involved). Usually after being persuaded to go to a third world country, usually but not always in Africa, for the final payoff.
At one level I have little sympathy for those who get caught this way. For every 419 e-mail I have received makes it patently obvious that you would be breaking some serious laws in the scammers country if not your own.
There is a pretty comprehensive Wiki article covering it. Search Google for Advance fee fraud and it is the first result. One of the cases mentioned in the Wiki article featured on UK media, TV and print, last year, e.g. see the Grauniad link below.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/15/internet-usa
Posted by: bybelknap, FCD | June 11, 2009 3:45 PM
Rev BDC OM KoT. I feel your pain my brutha. I have sales people who must log on to our terminal server, consuming valuable license seats, because they can't get IE to work with our on-line quotation system on their own laptops (which they hopelessly destroy within hours of removing them to their hotel rooms and distant homesteads). Gawds forbid they should try to use Firefox, or RTFM or do ANYTHING at all to learn how to use the equipment on which their livelihoods depend... feh. No, call IT and whine "I can't export my quote to pdf! waah waah waah!" And troubleshooting a hotel wireless network over the phone with them? GAAAAAH!!!!! I'd sooner smash my own knuckles with a hammer.
I always wanted to be a dancer anyway.
Posted by: Celtic_Evolution | June 11, 2009 3:47 PM
Rev. BDC
Yep... malwarebytes is in my "Thumbdrive toolbox" (or my 'magic key', as my wife calls it). I've used it with pretty good success.
Oh, no doubt that's the most effective route for corporate owned and imaged machines in a business environment. Hell, I don't even run malware scans on the ones that come in all hosed up anymore. I just toss them on the bench and let Altiris re-image the damn things... far faster than trying to identify, then fix whatever the problem is.
However, if you're life is as miserable as mine, then you know all about the "friends and family network", when you are the only "IT guy or gal" in your network of dozens, if not hundreds, of family and friends, and you are expected to fix them all, gratis of course... then you have to take the extra steps to try and clean them.
I've got one in my workshop now that was so badly infected that TW Cable shut down her access. I have no time to work on it, but I get a call every day...
Sorry... I digress...
Posted by: kamaka | June 11, 2009 4:01 PM
SkeptiCoTM Rip-off Detector
Yah, gal I work with bit on the car warranty scam, cost her a couple of grand as I remember.
And they didn't pay for the car repair! Imagine that!
Posted by: GregV | June 11, 2009 4:13 PM
This hoax (yes, hoax) comes up frequently.
Posted by: Smidgy | June 11, 2009 4:22 PM
I had to laugh when I got the same email. My cellphone hasn't worked in about 2 years, so, even if this were true, good luck in telemarketers trying to contact me using that number.
Posted by: catta
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June 11, 2009 4:28 PM
There are many well-documented cases, many with the victim being ruined, but also some ending with murder. And it's not even that all victims are particularly stupid or overly gullible. Some of them though are desperate and willing to cling to any hope, which makes the way these scams work all the more evil.
Have a look at 419eater.com.
Posted by: Don't Panic | June 11, 2009 4:57 PM
I argued with one of those "info about your credit card" people trying to get him to take me off the list -- having informed him that my land line was on the "Do Not Call" list. Instead he got all pissed and said he wasn't gonna'. If anything the number has gone up -- I suspect that he flagged me as a potential mark just to up the annoyance level. I really don't see the point though 'cause all the time they spend on me is just costing them. I always wait for the operator to come on the line so I can waste their time.
Posted by: Smidgy | June 11, 2009 5:22 PM
My brother had a good trick for doing that. He had a little tape player with a tape, on a loop, of him just making vague non-committal noises. When the operator came on, he would just put the phone down beside the tape player, and just let them chatter on whilst he went away and carried on with whatever he was doing, and just come back every so often to check if they'd hung up yet. The record he has was a guy who was still on the line an hour and a half after he first called.
Posted by: AlgaeGirl
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June 11, 2009 5:49 PM
You're so cynical, gosh!
Posted by: Happy Tentacles
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June 11, 2009 6:11 PM
That story has been on the consumer affairs programme 'You & Yours' on Radio 4 in the UK. They implied that here, at least, it was real, but people phoning the company to get their numbers removed from the database were being kept on hold for up to 10 minutes and then cut off. Allegedly there is a website that one could access to get de-listed, but it may not be running yet. No idea how real any of this is. (My last mobile phone died because I didn't use it for 6 months.)
Posted by: Ichthyic | June 11, 2009 6:11 PM
I always wanted to be a dancer anyway.
you should talk to...
The Vocational Guidance Counselor
Posted by: MikeM | June 11, 2009 6:28 PM
Kind-of related... Pretty entertaining article on Time's website about the website Tagged.
Just delete those emails too.
Posted by: Kermit | June 11, 2009 6:53 PM
Sven: not only have people fallen for it, at least two committed embezzlement to fund it! Here's one:
http://www.fraudwatchers.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-798.html
I find some satisfaction in responding "Really? Tell me more!" and then quietly setting the phone down. They usually catch on in a minute or so, but I figure that saves at least one other person from getting an annoying call.
Businesses need copies of the Do-Not-Call lists. What's to stop a sleazy outfit from getting a business letterhead printed up and simply requesting a copy (for a nominal fee, I assume)? They can then retire to their evil lair where their flying monkey slaves make those calls, using a fresh list of known live people.
Posted by: 'Tis Himself, OM
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June 11, 2009 7:13 PM
I always wanted to be a lion tamer. I've got my own hat.
Posted by: Masks of Eris | June 11, 2009 7:15 PM
Well, the somehow automated spam comments you get on blogs can be amusing too.
Especially when they begin to contain the phrase "PS. Don't be a dick --- this isn't spam!"
Makes you think long and hard, and wonder if a legitimate commenter would say such generalities, and link to some site selling shady medicines.
And then the delete button jingles.
Posted by: Monado | June 11, 2009 8:00 PM
Some people in Canada started getting marketing calls on their cell phones when they registered their cell phone numbers on the Canadian Do Not Call list. There's nothing to prevent marketers from getting it "so they know whom not to call" and then calling everyone. Oh, and you have to re-register every few years or you become fair game again.
Posted by: Dust | June 11, 2009 8:09 PM
At my job dopes think that because we have email they should send around warning emails for shit like what PZ posted above.
I annony them back by finding the page on Snopes that shows it to be a hoax and hitting 'reply all' and sending it back.
This has proved effective in discouraging people from sending me more of this crap! :)
Posted by: Janine, OMnivore | June 11, 2009 8:20 PM
I always wanted to be a lion tamer. I've got my own hat.
I am an ex lion tamer. I've got my own song.
Posted by: Rey Fox | June 11, 2009 8:34 PM
I've gotten this three times from my Dad.
Posted by: Andyo
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June 11, 2009 9:01 PM
The thing about this is that the lie is that they're gonna be releasing your number to telemarketers, but it's still a good idea to put your phone # on the DO NOT CALL list.
www.donotcall.gov
Even when telemarketers don't have your cell number freely available, it will protect you from those who happen to get it. I have gotten a couple of calls before on my cell.
If you have a landline as I do too, it DOES WORK WONDERFULLY for those. I even got a call once from a shady telemarketer, and just me mentioning "sorry, you do know that I'm on the DO NOT CALL list, right?" seemed to scare him out. He apologized quickly and hang up without even me asking him not to bother me.
Posted by: Andyo
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June 11, 2009 9:10 PM
Wait a minute... what if this is just a sinister double ploy from telemarketers to make us smartypants think it's a hoax, so then they can get us to NOT register our numbers? Did I just blow your mind?
Posted by: George E Martin | June 11, 2009 9:43 PM
@63
Nope!
George
Posted by: Lettuce | June 11, 2009 9:48 PM
Good thing you had that Snopes link...
The site isn't the best, but the article from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel was pretty good. Got to get the Minnesota out.
Posted by: DLC | June 11, 2009 10:07 PM
Well, I'll be able to afford a cell phone after the payout from the Nigerian finance ministry. . .
Posted by: George E Martin | June 11, 2009 10:08 PM
I guess you could call what I do IT. A few other IT people commented in this thread about spam, phishing, and the like. Where I work I think our biggest concern is password phishing.
Every so often about twenty or thirty percent of our accounts get a phishing email that says we are redoing our email system or that we are pruning our system or some such other thing. To confirm that you really need your account you must email back with your account name and password. Of course they use our organization name in the email.
Fortunately the English is often somewhat poor.
We often remind people that we will never ask them to email their password. We also tell them that any email about their account will be signed by a real person, not by an organization.
When we detect these things we will configure our email servers to block outgoing email to the Reply To: address (just in case) which of course is almost always different from the From: address.
I'm not too worried about old employees, but every new employee is a new account and a new risk.
George
Posted by: Andyo
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June 11, 2009 11:16 PM
As far as I know Hi5 and probably others of their ilk, spread like a virus because they asked members to put their hotmail or yahoo passwords, and then hijacking their contact lists and spamming all their contacts as if that person was sending the invitation (it even came apparently from the member's email address).
People will put their email address anywhere they're asked to, it seems.
Facebook is now doing something similar, though less blatant.
Posted by: Sphere Coupler | June 12, 2009 12:00 AM
I once received a scam call before the "no call laws" and made that person feel so bad about the dishonesty perpetrated, that this person called back *twice* to apologize and informed me that this job was a high paying job and people in that country line up for them.
Posted by: AJS | June 12, 2009 2:15 AM
I got an e-mail last week, warning me about the danger of catching swine flu from tinned pork luncheon meat. I ignored it. It was spam .....
Posted by: Tatil | June 12, 2009 3:28 AM
I encountered such a case, I think if you give the same reaction
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | June 12, 2009 10:06 AM
Yep. Every day about three banks (usually situated on another continent) tell me about five times in total that my account is blocked due to suspicious activity and they need all sorts of personal information to open it again.
And every day about three e-mail providers tell me about five times in total that my mailbox is full or was abused by a spammer or something and they need my password and stuff to open it again. Sometimes they even (!) pretend to be my own e-mail provider (…but because they don't speak German, they all fail hilariously, not even taking into account that said provider wouldn't speak English to me).
Oh, and, while not everyone goes to the trouble of doing it*, e-mail addresses can be faked without limit. Several times I got spam from "myself", that is, my own address was in the From: line.
* Several times people at the Zambia Ministery [sic] of Mines had too many megabucks lying around and wanted to ship some out of the country. Their addresses always ended in @zambiaministeryofmines.com. Never mind the spelling, they didn't even bother looking up the top-level domain for Zambia! Aaah. Good times. =8-)
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | June 12, 2009 10:10 AM
Best of all, of course, is the spam that comes from randomly generated names like Blockhead J. Minolta. This flat-out tells people "deny it all you want, some of you are stupid enough to fall for our scam, and enough of you are that the scam is profitable – suck on it, we pwn you all".
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | June 12, 2009 10:14 AM
Its not just email. Social engineering (which is what those emails are) happens by phone as well. We get calls fairly frequently that are someone saying they are from our printer customer service group and need to know the serial numbers and make and models of our copier / printers. Luckily the employees here always forward these to me.
What happens is that they get the information and ship bogus toner to you and charge out the ass for it giving you a no returns invoice.
This is a tactic used to get people's passwords etc. as well.
Social Engineering is one of the most affective ways to penetrate security. Mainly because it depends on the gullibility and stupidity of humans.
And we know what that means.
Posted by: Natalie | June 12, 2009 11:10 AM
Ah yes, the toner phoners. "I'm calling from customer service." "Customer service of what company?" *click*
Unfortunately our IT department has the annoying habit of calling and only identifying themselves as being from "IT support". At least they actually answer when you ask them their name and what company their from.
Posted by: muttpupdad | June 12, 2009 11:40 AM
I love the calls from the auto warrenty place as we haven't owned a car since 1990 and the newest motocycle I own company went out in 1976(Norton). I always ask them if this means that they are going to send me a car to cover and they hang up right away and usally don't call back for several months.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | June 12, 2009 12:48 PM
Yes. I have 3 different laptops at home right now I said I'd work on. And while I appreciate the bottle of whiskey that usually accompanies these things, I like cash too.
but I guess the bottle makes them think it's like me doing a favor for them, which it is. Unfortunately the favor feels exactly like work. And they don't pay me in Makers Mark at my job.
Posted by: Email Marketing Software | June 12, 2009 2:47 PM
I will recommend using ePostMailer for all bulk email marketing needs. Its the best bulk email marketing software I have used so far.
Posted by: Ticker | June 12, 2009 3:40 PM
Somehow, that spam for spam software is severely ironic. But also a bit like posting a "kick me" sign on your own back.