Nobody's saying you lied, just that this is an email that's been going around for a little while that has an entry at an urban legend website because it makes somewhat exaggerated claims.

I'm personally glad you shared them, because at least the last one will save people some moola!

But when an email suggests people just start entering codes into their cell phone (without also providing instructions on how to "undo" the code), I do get a little concerned. Such programming codes are often not widely disseminated not because the phone maker is trying to hide something, but because there are tradeoffs (which the original email didn't mention, e.g., you may get longer battery life, but your voice quality decreases as well).

YMMV.