Yesterday, my wife called me to check out an email that was sent to her by a family member. The email alleged that telemarketers would start calling cell phone numbers on January 1 unless the number was registered on the Do Not Call list. Naturally, it turned out to be a hoax. CNET News.com also has a report on the hoax.

A hoax e-mail circulating the Internet has millions of Americans scurrying to add their cell phones to a national Do Not Call list to avoid telemarketers.

The e-mail warns recipients that telemarketers will have new rights to call cell phones beginning Jan. 1, if people don’t request anonymity by Wednesday. In the last week, 9.5 million people registered with the Do Not Call list, many as a result of the warning, according to its governing agency the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC typically fields up to 200,000 requests in a week, according to FTC spokeswoman Jen Schwartzman.

“People are panicked, and I think the only thing they got right in the e-mail is our Web site registration information,” Schwartzman said.

However, while looking up details on the hoax, I came across this interesting story (second item).

Shortly after music director Nathan Robinson arrived at the Guitar Center in Grossmont Center mall to buy new equipment, in walked a man in his 20s carrying the church’s Yamaha keyboard. Robinson recognized the fellow as someone who’d stopped by the church about three months earlier to inquire about its program.

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While awaiting police, an employee tested the keyboard and detained the seller. As soon as the La Mesa police arrived, the man bolted out of the store and blended into a sea of holiday shoppers – but he conveniently left behind his driver’s license and thumb print.

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When the choir arrived for rehearsal that evening, the equipment was back in its place and ready for service. The thief, no doubt, was wishing he’d gone to a different music store.