Welcome to next major unwanted ad sytems SMS spamming cellphones now.

[techie]

This is quickly becoming annoying and will only get worse. Companies like these are low lives.

https://www.openmarket.com/press/sms-helps-retailers-customer-engagement/

http://www.icmi.com/Resources/Mobile/2015/06/SMS-Helps-Boost-Customer-Loyalty

There is many more. This is simply probably the worst form of spam, ever created.

What does the National Do Not Call List do for consumers? It provides a list to all of the unscrupulous scumbags out there pulling scams or spamming your inbox text now on cellphones, with a valid phone number list.

[Pete!]

.....What does the National Do Not Call List do for consumers?....

Actually, it tells me that any telemarketer that calls me is either a criminal, or hopelessly incompetent.... Neither is someone I'd consider doing business with.

The downside is that legitimate callers, who don't identify themselves right away, might find me to be a bit abusive.

[techie]

Some major companies are using it for legitimate purposes, but now you have the same fraudsters that use robo calling using this for illegitimate scams and phishing, in SMS text messages.

[Aaron Hulett]

I don't understand. This reads like the business has a relationship with the customer, and is sending messages to that customer. It's not like the "wild west" of email where it's a spam-a-thon all the time, and where people's cell phones are lighting up with advertising texts in a same fashion. Did I misunderstand?

[techie]

I don't understand. This reads like the business has a relationship with the customer, and is sending messages to that customer. It's not like the "wild west" of email where it's a spam-a-thon all the time, and where people's cell phones are lighting up with advertising texts in a same fashion. Did I misunderstand?

Aaron it does have a very legitimate business use. The problem I am seeing is that some of the same unscrupulous robo calling spams that many people receive daily, are attempting to use this to spam a persons SMS cellphone text with what would look like legitimate communications. Examples of spam calls you have won trip, renew your auto warranty, etc.

If you read the description it is as well being used to increase revenue (ads). A real relationship is fine and I do receive text messages in that case. The problem is it can be used as a ad delivery system, to individuals without a relationship. All that is needed is a cellphone number.

I had an actual experience with this yesterday. I received an SMS message. I had the opportunity to enter stop to not receive any further messages, within minutes, after replying STOP, I received another SMS message (different source) and a robo call (spam). I again replied stop to the second SMS message, again within minutes I received another robo call (spam).

I then blocked the two spam numbers and blocked the text sources and attempted to enter stop again, for the same original SMS messages. Every time I attempted this it generated a new robo call from a different telephone number. I verified the telephone numbers against a white-list and they were all indeed blacklisted as spam. One time I could see as maybe a coincidence, but after numerous test it happened repeatedly. This is my conclusion, that after receiving the SMS generated message and then responding to STOP, to end it, a robo call was then shortly generated because they had phished a valid telephone number.   

The quote from the site.

"According to the same survey, however, retailers cite a real interest in trying new and innovative ways to boost revenue. And more than half of them – 69 percent – say that if they saw an opportunity to drive revenue or improve customer experience, they would be compelled to give SMS in particular a try."

To drive revenue. Is this not an ad delivery system?

I hope this clears it up a little. It can be good, if there is a relationship, annoying if not and then it can be used incorrectly if not kept in check.

[techie]

Text Message Spam FTC, it is a real threat.

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0350-text-message-spam

You have sites like this that helps generate them.

http://www.sendanonymoussms.com/