More spam- on your cell phone

It is estimated that about 3.3 billion people were cell phone subscribers in November 2007. It is not unreasonable to assume that cell phones may be one of the most influential inventions of the past century. And until recently, it was one of the last forms of communication free of advertisements and solicitations. Now it seems spam email via text message is picking up steam and may become even more annoying than spam on the internet. 

Ferris Research, a San Francisco based research company that tracks mobile messaging trends, says that American consumers should expect to receive 1.5 billion text message solicitations in the year 2008.

Text message spammers reach us via the internet, a medium they are very familiar with. Most cell phones have a dedicated email address which spammers use to send their text message. They have a system in place that randomly texts numbers using known cell phone number prefixes. The worst part is, text messaging is free for the sender if they use the internet, but not for the recipient. 

Cell phone providers insist that although spam text messaging can be a very big revenue source, they are not interested in its profitability. In fact, they are increasing the ways consumers can control the spam messages they receive. And companies like Sprint say they have spam filters in place that reduce the number of spam text messages sent across their network by about 65 percent. Below is a list of ways consumers can get relief from text message spam.

• Call your service provider each time you receive a solicitation and ask for a refund.
• Add your cell phone number to the FCC’s Do Not Call Registry
• Go online to your cell phone provider’s web page. Access your cell phone account preferences. Click on email/message preferences and change your setting to not allow Internet text messages.