Have you received one of those frantic sounding e-mails urging you to be sure to register your cell phone with the National Do Not Call registry by a certain date or your cell phone number will be given out to telemarketers?

If so, AARP Kansas wants you to know the facts about registering your cell phone number.

First, the information contained in the e-mail is not true. The Federal Trade Commission or FTC which administers the national Do Not Call Registry allows consumers to place their home and cell phone numbers on the registry—it always has since the registry opened in June 2003. And, there is no deadline for you to add either your home or your cell phone number if it isn’t already on the list—there never has been. The Federal Communications Commission or FCC which enforces the Do Not Call Registry along with state law enforcement agencies prohibits telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers. According to the FCC website, www.fcc.gov, automated dialers are standard in the industry, so most telemarketers don’t call consumers on their cell phones without their consent.

You may also have read that you have to renew your Do Not Call registration every five years. This is also not true. Once you register a number, it will only be removed when it is disconnected and reassigned, or when you choose to remove the number. If you change your phone number and forget to remove it from the list, don’t worry. It will be removed once it is assigned to someone else.

For more information about how to register phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry or to register numbers, visit www.donotcall.gov or www.fcc.gov or call 1-888-382-1222.