Next target for spam? Cell phones

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Get-rich-quick schemes, explicit pornography (or the @neowin.net ever popular penis enlargement), urgent appeals for help from Nigerian colonels. Coming soon to a cell phone near you?

The bulk "spam" that now accounts for as much as three-quarters of all e-mail traffic could soon insinuate its way into movie theaters, subways, and anywhere else Americans take their cell phones, experts said at a forum on spam on Thursday.

Text-messaging services on newer cell phones could enable spammers to reach a tempting new audience, conference panelists said.

Federal law prohibits most telemarketers from dialing cell phones, but no such regulations prevent spammers from sending messages to addresses like 2025551212+cellphonecarrier.com. Because many text services carry a per-message charge, costs to consumers could mount quickly.

Wireless spam is already a problem in Japan, where text messaging has been a popular feature of cell-phone service for years, said an official with NTT DoCoMo Inc., the Japanese telecommunications giant.

News source: CNN

#1 bangbang023 on 05 May 2003 - 15:35

I already got a spam text message on my cell phone and so have many of my friends. It's a spanish ad and since I don't know spanish I don't understand it at all, but thank god i get free incoming texts.

(1 reply) #2 on 01 Jan 1970 - 00:00

#2.1 Marshalus on 05 May 2003 - 15:37

There are some laws about it, in some states. I know in Kansas there is a law that you cannot receive advertisements over a medium which costs you money. This prevents people from sending faxes with ads in them. A guy I went to high school with has a dad who is an attorney who specializes in fighting people who break it. We still get them all the time at work though, which surprises me that a company as big as the one I work for (Target Corp.) wouldn't do something about it. If this does become a problem though, I'll be cancelling my TXT messaging. I like using it, but not enough to get junk mail in it.

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