I HATE forwards.

I received this e-mail today. The person sending it asked the question in the first line. The paragraph below was the forward.

"Is this for real?! I went to the website and it doesn't look very convincing."

JUST A REMINDER....19 days from today, all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sale calls. .YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS.... To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 888-382-1222. It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time. It blocks your number for five (5) years.
HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS OR GO TO:

http://www.donotcall.gov/

Well, I'm very glad they asked. Like so many forwards and "junk mail", it was not true. The website is legit. It's an extention of the FTC website (I think). From this site I went to the FTC site, and looked at FAQ's. Here's what I found:

"What Phone Numbers Can I Register?
10. Can I register my cell phone on the National Do Not Call Registry?
Yes, you may place your personal cell phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry. The registry has accepted cell phone numbers since it opened for registrations in June 2003. There is no deadline to register a home or cell phone number on the Registry.
You may have received an email telling you that your cell phone is about to be assaulted by telemarketing calls as a result of a new cell phone number database; however, that is not the case. FCC regulations prohibit telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers. Automated dialers are standard in the industry, so most telemarketers don’t call consumers on their cell phones without their consent."
(From: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/dncalrt.htm)

So the e-mail forward was half true and half not. (Which, of course, makes it even more convincing to pass along.) The site was real, but the reason to visit the site was not. I wonder how many people just signed up their cells w/out logically going to read more info??

I hate forwards: most of them are junk, not even worth the small amount of electricity it takes to look at them. I remember the first chain letter I got as a kid, and how the stories about all the people who didn't pass on the chain letter had dramatic and horrible things happen to them. In my opinion, this modern phenomenom is much worse: people actually believe them all just because the internet says so!

I've been debunking these things ever since I got my first one. It's not hard. All you have to do is visit the official site of whatever topic you're looking for. Like the one about the government going to take away Christian's rights to have their own radio stations and Dr. Dobson at Focus on the Family needs you to sign this online petition and pass it to everyone you know. All I had to do was go to www.family.org and type in "petition" and the first hit on their site was about how this was a big hoax. Sad, isn't it, that millions of Americans jsut signed their name, forwarded this lie to half their address book and never game it another thought?

Yeah, so I'm ranting. I'm allowed once in a while, aren't I? ;)
hmmm...maybe I need to start a Facebook group about this... lol