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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. 

May 3, 1978, Gary Thuerk, DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) marketing rep changed the course of advertising when he sent out an email solicitation to the 400 employees of Arpnet. Long before most of the world knew what the terms WWW and email meant, this message created a backlash that would transcend three decades, as well as create a few sales. Saturday marked the 30th anniversary of SPAM. 

Each day, more than a billion people around the world are subject to filtering their email boxes for SPAM. For some, finding apropos email messages can be like finding a needle in a haystack or a four leaf clover. Just mention the word SPAM and even the most jovial people can be overcome with annoyance and frustration. 

Although we have come along way with SPAM blocking techniques, eliminating the problem has proven to be a far more difficult task than imagined. 

Like Star Wars, there is an all out war being waged in Cyber Space. But as the anti SPAM software advances, so do the SPAMMING techniques. Long gone are the days when SPAMMERS used email gateways to target their consumers. Today, trojan horses come knocking at operating system doors allowing botnets to highjack networks and move cross over platforms. 

BING (you receive a text message). Please help us save our village in Nigeria. Your minimal efforts will be handsomely rewarded.