You knew it would happen sooner or later. And it’s starting to happen now. Spammers and telemarketers have your number -- your CELL phone number -- and they’re making your phone ring or buzz at the worst times of your day. Besides being annoying, these calls and SMS messages are costing you money!

Don’t suffer in silence. There are a couple of things you can do to stop at least some of the unwanted communications.

If telemarketers are calling your cell phone, add your cell phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry. That will deter some telemarketers.

Unfortunately there are some out there now who have figured out a way to make fake or non-working phone numbers display as the caller’s phone number. The calls I've been getting come from telemarketers using an automated message to announce that this is the "second and final notice" of the expiration of an auto warranty. I doubt anything short of getting caught and thrown in jail will stop those calls.

If you’re getting spammy SMS text messages, contact your cell phone service provider. As David Pogue noted in a post last month, AT&T and Verizon now offer a service that lets you block SMS messages you don’t want while allowing others you do want. Other mobile service providers have some feature to help cut unwanted SMS messages, too. (Thanks to Amy Gahran for pointing to that post in a Twitter post.)

More: Dialing and Driving

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