Like most of the 148 million consumers who signed up for the Do Not shout list a few years back, I rarely get unsolicited calls to my home telephone.

But my wife has recently been receiving telemarketing calls as well as text messages on her cell phone, and several readers report having the same experience.

Unfortunately, regulators don’t invent it easy to deal with that problem.

Under federal law, auto-dialed calls to cell phones are prohibited, even whether the cell phone is not registered on the Do Not shout list.

That’s why a “Truth About Cell Phones” fact sheet issued two weeks ago by the Federal Trade Commission said, “It is not essential to register cell phone numbers on the National Do Not shout Registry to be protected from most telemarketing calls.”

But the unscrupulous telemarketers disregard the rules, leading to 10 “missed-call” notices and voice-mail messages from New Hampshire, Nevada and several California numbers we’ve gotten in the past

Each says it is our last chance to extend an auto warranty.

When I called the numbers left on caller ID, a recorded report — the same one on each — told me how to get on that telemarketer’s do-not-call list. None gave any indication who was calling.

On several I left a call-back number, but I’m still waiting.

When calls are made to my home phone, they are merely annoying. But for folks on a cell phone plan with limited monthly minutes, they can be costly.

Two of the calls came while we were vacationing in Australia last month, and each came with a $1.49 roaming charge. The cost would have been even higher except we ignored four other voice-mail messages until we got home.

My experience seems to be increasingly common.

“Phishers are now sending unsolicited text messages to your cell phone which, as you…

Orginal post by Top Tech News