Cell phones have been gaining steam as a primary form of communication and replacing landlines that cannot be justified. Although many phone users do not miss their standard landline phone, it is a strange new concept to get used to. When rumors began generating that cell phones were going to be the next target for telemarketers, cell phone users just went wild. Not only were they going to be charged a premium for minutes from incoming calls but they had just gotten rid of old faithful, the land line.

To ease everyone's mind, cell phones are not treated any differently than landlines and the telemarketing laws that now exist. Cell phones are not free game for the telemarketing industry regardless of the rumors that may fly around. In fact, the crackdown on telemarketing companies calling cell phones just might be a little rougher for those in violation of the law.

Those at home who receive annoying telemarketing calls may make a mental note to use reverse phone lookup to retrieve the company's information and report later but never do. When you are away from home, perhaps working or waiting on an important client to call, the last thing you expect is a telemarketer wasting your time and money. Now you are not relaxed or apt to forget. This is an intrusion of your space big time!

How dare those telemarketers interrupt your work schedule and cost you precious money by calling your cell phone! Now you are prepared to leap into action by grabbing your laptop and using reverse phone lookup to get all the information possible on this intrusion. You may even call them back to rant but only receive a recording.

The best action to take is registering your cell phone number with the National Do Not Call Registry. You may have heard that the Do Not Call Registry does not cover cell phones. This simply is not true. Any phone that has an American area code is covered under the National Do Not Call List. This law also binds telemarketing companies that are located outside of the United States. There is very little wiggle room for getting around this law although telemarketers have tried.

Mobile spam, or email spam was tried for a brief period of time but was stopped dead in its tracks. Mobile spamming is when a telemarketing company sends an email to your cell phone in hopes that you will read it. This is very bad news for the company because this procedure is illegal and they are easily caught. They are forcing you to pay for something that you did not ask for. Telemarketing companies have also tried to scare you into believing that The Do Not Call Registry law does not pertain to cell phones and that all cell phone numbers are going to be published for the world to see. Both of these statements are also false.

Recently, telemarketing companies have been narrowing in on foreign cell phone users. This is completely legal unless the country that provides the cellular service in question has some type of Do Not Call law within their nation's boundaries. There has been discussion of creating a 411 directory service but nothing concrete as of yet. Regardless, the Do Not Call Registry law is very clear on telemarketing companies attempting to access these numbers for promoting their product or service.

The law reads, "it is unlawful for any person to make any call using any automatic telephone dialing system or any artificial or prerecorded voice message to any telephone number assigned to a paging service, mobile telephone service or any service for which the called party is charged for the call." The only exception to this rule is in cases of emergency, i.e. a 911 operator returning an urgent call that came from your cell phone.

Even if you have a landline, you should register your cell phone number with the National Do Not Call Registry so telemarketers that may randomly select your number know that you are off limits. Since word has gotten out that cell phones are also covered under this law, more than 34 million cell phone numbers have been registered in less than a year. There may still be a few telemarketers that slip through and do not hesitate to use reverse phone lookup to report them to the authorities. After a stiff fine of $500 to $1,500 is charged to them and tripled if it is found that their actions were intentional, the calls will stop.

Remember however; think very hard before using reverse phone lookup and reporting a company. This law does not apply to companies that you have given permission to contact you. This could be something as simple as signing up for a free gift or downloading tunes. Always read the fine print and receive anything you agree to in writing. Charitable organizations are also exempt from the National Do Not Call list as are political affiliations.

If you have an outstanding bill to a company, they also have the right to contact you until payment arrangements have been agreed upon. Making a purchase also gives the store or companies the right to contact you for up to 12 months because you entered into a business relationship with them. In this case, kindly ask them not to call your cell phone and they must abide by your wishes. The law is there for your protection whether you have a landline or a cell phone so take advantage of it whenever the law is broken.