Newsflash: Bizarre Text Messaging Deaths Kill Hundreds – Chain Letter Experts Advise, Keep Forwarding Those Messages or You Might Be Next!
Have you ever received text message junk mail and spam? I have. It used to be my cell phone was mine alone. No wrong numbers, no texts advertising butcher shop meat (of all things!) and no chain letters.
Most of it is your typical “You won a trip to the Bahamas! Phone now to claim your prize!” I usually say, Yeah, as if, and push ‘delete’ with alacrity. That means I push the button with “cheerful readiness, promptness, or willingness” and in this case, almost a little satisfaction at having figured out it is a scam.
Last week, a few of us got curious, so I phoned one such number to see what would happen. We knew I didn’t actually win a trip, since in order to win contests you have to enter some sort of draw. This simple reasoning must be beyond some fools, who fall for scams because they assume that do-gooder text-telemarketers randomly pick their name out of a ginormous hat with billions of names in it, in order to give stuff away without making any money, just out of the goodness of their lily white hearts. But I digress.
A pleasant sounding young man answered the phone with a travel agency kind of name. I told him why I was phoning and he asked me for my location, which I gave since I am working away from home. He then asked me if I could give my name and confirm it with a credit card number “for authentication and prize claim purposes only“. I told him I didn’t have a credit card. He just hung up, didn’t even say goodbye. I guess that means he was legit?
And then there are the chain letter texts. You would think these might be a little shorter than the traditional email version, but not by much. Both of the ones I received actually came in 2 or 3 messages, since they were too long to fit in one. Both sported crap like this:
“Julie didn’t forward this message, and she was in a terrible car accident in which she lost both legs and one hand. But she didn’t lose her cell phone (convenient, eh?), and good thing, too. Because she remembered this message, forwarded it, and later that night she won the lottery!”
and this quality nugget:
“Make sure you send this message in the next 5 minutes and something wonderful will happen. But if you don’t, the only way they will be able to identify your mangled, twisted excuse for a body will be by your titanium navel ring, which your loving mother had engraved with your name for graduation.”
I need a cell phone spam filter. I bet they don’t make those yet.
Cell phone spamming is getting to be a menace. At least here in India, we’ve not got those scamming messages yet – so far it’s been just straightforwarding ad-spamming. But I expect the next wave of scams to arrive here too.
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It was bad enough it came through the mail, but now its encroaching new territory.
The day I start getting crap like this on my phone is the day I flush it down the toilet (the phone, not the crap. Well, the crap, too).
I love the idea of a “ginormous hat,” from which are pulled the lucky names of randomly chosen idiots.
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I hate spam, junk mail, and wish people would realize making me read all their stupid xmas promos will not make me buy from them.
Now these so called get rich quick with my kind dead uncle’s money bit is really getting me down.
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Scary. I’m glad you didn’t die from not forwarding the txt. I’d bet that SMS messages would be really hard to write a spam filter for. As most folks use atrocious spelling and grammar, that would wipe out several of you filters.
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Ya. I know what you mean. I always get a call from someone who wants to “verify some information.” I get sick of it.
Hari and Mira: watch out for it!
JD: If I didn’t need my cell phone for work, I would probably flush it either way.
Sarika: These things must make someone money, or they would quit, so really we could blame the suckers who fall for it. Without them ,we wouldn’t have spam! Everyone, please educate your older relatives, slow cousins and silly friends, so we can reduce the scam success and lower their profit margins to the point of un-viable-ness
Aaron: You’re right, it would be hard to build a filter that could handle ‘OMG U 8 1 2?” and such
Kevin: yeah, who phones random people to verify information?
I’ve just recalled when my cousine sent me a normal snail mail (15 years ago) with this chain letter stuff. It’s funny to see that the new technologies aren’t free from this stuff.
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Geezz… I feel kind of left out cuz the only spam I’m getting is forwards from my drunken sis-in-law. I guess its not enough for her to send me forwards in email that she has now broached text messaging. I wonder what I gotta do to win a free trip to Tahiti? Any ideas?? I have a credit card ya know.
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Well this certainly is a spiffy looking place.
I don’t get any spam texts yet.. where do I sign up? I’ve been needing some good luck and a vacation.
Happy New Year!
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The sad thing is, none of us would have to put up with silliness like this if it weren’t for the small percentage of gullible folks that fall for it. I hope that as time progresses, learning how to spot scams becomes common sense as well-known as how to put on your clothes.
I hate Spam of all kinds. SMS Spam is really annoying. I asked my cell-provider to stop all kind of messages from business domains. Works most of the time.
That was disgusting! I hope it doesn’t reach here in my place.
I hate those people who do these chain text messages. I mean what do they get in return? tsk2
I used to get annoyed if any of my friends sent me a message like that. I used to get all those love emails when I was at school “send this to 20 people and the person you love will fall in love with you” followed by annoyance from friends if I broke the chain. It’s so stupid and I couldn’t figure out what people were getting from them.