Mobile Spam

Being a "Generation Xer," I just really don't have a need for text messaging. If I want to send someone a message, I use my email account. If I want to reach them on the phone, I use my voice. As tech savvy as I am, I have never sent a text message to anyone, nor do I forsee myself doing so anytime soon.

However, I still receive them. Last month, I received several of them in fact. They were all from places looking to sell me software, or pharmaceuticals, or whatever they were hocking that day. I have no idea where they got my phone number from. At fifteen cents a message, it's not breaking the bank yet, but the only thing worse than receiving spam is paying to receive spam.

On my email account, when I first got it over a decade ago, spam was quite rare. Now I receive five spam messages for each real email received. If text message spam grows at the same rate, this could start to add up- especially for the cell phone service companies.

Apparently, in at least one state, mobile spam is illegal. However, legal or not, I'm still getting spammed, and paying for the text messages which don't seem to be stopping.

I'm planning on calling T-Mobile. I'm not sure what they can do. Is there some spam filter they can out into place? Can they totally block text messaging from my phone? Or will I be told there is nothing they can do? At the very least, maybe this will encourage them to drop me from calling too much.

I'll keep you all posted as to how this one progresses...

--Jonas

The story continues over here.