Posted by
CmdrTaco
on from the step-in-the-right-direction dept.
mickers writes "news.com.au reports that in Australia, phone companies which allow SMS spam to be sent across their networks face fines of up to A$10 million under a new industry code.." Are people having a huge problem with SMS spam yet, or is this sort of action more pre-emptive?
This is nice and all...
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
...but why not instead take the action of banning the spammers and punishing them as well? Basically, put it in the contract when you let someone use your network that if they send spam, they'll face nasty fines and be subject to litigation?
Re:This is nice and all...
by
dhuv
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Most of the spam comes from countries where that law cannot/wouldnot reach.
SMS Spam from my provider
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
The worst SMS spam that I get is actually from my telephone (wireless) provider.
Every so often, they send me a message telling me about their cheap rates and how I could be working more efficiently by using SMS:)
Re:SMS Spam from my provider
by
KDan
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
The worst in europe is the way some networks message you to let you know that you're going through one network or another (as they all interoperate). So you're driving on the highway at 120+km/h, and you suddenly get your phone beeping to let you know... that you're welcome to SFR/Orange/Vodafone/etc. They should be sued because that is probably a cause for accidents.
Daniel
-- Carpe Diem
Re:SMS Spam from my provider
by
2sleep2type
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I would strongly agree with this. My provider was the worst offender. I say was as I got so annoyed by this and other customer service issues I moved provider. As other posters have commented there is a cost to send SMS which of course is near nill for providers and thatâ(TM)s why they are the most prolific.
I've noticed that there are a lot of competitions that are enter by SMS. I presume that this is harvesting of numbers for future campaigns. As people have entered the competion they are interested in your product and a âwarm leadâ(TM) worth the cost of SMSing. Iâ(TM)ve never entered any of these as I suspect that spam would follow.
Is there a market in lists of SMS numbers yet? That will be an indicator that this has taken off.
Re:SMS Spam from my provider
by
Stuart+Gibson
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
If your phone beeping is a probable cause for an accident you either shouldn't be driving or shouldn't have a phone, maybe even both.
What's the next plan - suing ice cream vans, or fire services because of the distracting noise?
Goblin
-- It's all fun and games until a 200' robot dinosaur shows up and trashes Neo-Tokyo... Again
Right on...
by
jdreed1024
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Are people
having a huge problem with SMS spam yet, or is this sort of action more pre-emptive?
Who cares? It's still a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, it seems that in today's society we often have to wait until something is already a serious problem before doing anything about it. Yay Australia for taking this step.
-- There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
This only applies to telco tho.
by
Soahc
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
If i read it correctly. This only applies to the telco's who take a list and do mass dump of sms's onto the network. Pople like blueskyfrog who spam anyone with a phone won't be hit by this because they do their own sms, and arn't a telco.
Not too bad... Yet
by
xYoni69x
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Here in Israel, I get SMS spam at a rate of about 1-2 messages per week. I don't know how it is in Australia, but at least here it isn't terribly annoying (yet).
However, I noted that I couldn't find any way to "opt out", which probably makes it illegal. But since I'm not bothered too much by it, I probably didn't search hard enough.
Re:Not too bad... Yet
by
Realistic_Dragon
·
· Score: 2, Informative
The spam messages in the UK usually give an opt out number, it just happens to be the same 09xx premuim rate (£1/$1.60 min) number as the sales line...
No one ever accused spammers of being ethical. It's possible that we may have found the only life form lower on the evolutionary scale than political lobyists.
-- Beep beep.
Re:Not too bad... Yet
by
brain159
·
· Score: 3, Informative
The biggest offender of that one was MobyMonkey, and ICSTIS have shat on them from a very great height.
Useful info from that guardian link: "Complaints about unsolicited text messages which encourage you to call an premium rate line, should be made to Ictsis on 0800 500 212"
SMS Spam is definately already a problem. The carriers themselves have been guilty of spamming their own users with new offers they can take advantage of - for a fee, of course. I'd link the story from AustralianIT, but their article seems to have vanished except from Google cache...hrm.
Its good to see a quick reaction to this, and it would be nice to think it might even have some influence on the issue of email spam as well...
The only SMS spam I have gotten so far has been from my service provider, Cingular. I don't think they'd press charges against themselves, so this doesn't really help. However, it's a good step. Being charged by the message, I'd be pretty annnoyed to be spammed.
dont know about the states
by
wisdom_brewing
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
i dont know how it is in the states... i dont think texting really took off there, nearly as much as it did in the UK or around europe, from what ive heard its quite big in australia as well... i get a few spam sms messages a month and though this is nowhere near the level of email spam, it is much easier to combat, as phone use, especially with texts, can easily be traced and excessive text use will be easily seen, simple... but yeh... tsmy pointless comments
I can't say we get a lot of SMS Spam... maybe 1 or 2 messages a week... but the main difference is that SMS Spam requires immediate attention, which makes is 10 times more annoying.
With email spam, you receive it at your leisure when you get the rest of your email. So you are essentially getting it when you are mentally prepared to.
SMS spam on the other hand interupts whatever it is you are doing because your phone beeps and demands attention. This means that if the message you get is spam, it is much more annoying because unlike getting a message from a friend, it is something completely worthless and nowhere near as interesting as what you were doing in the first place.
Don't be fooled
by
honestpuck
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Well actually SMS spam is an incredibly minor problem in Australia. I don't even believe this is a pre-emptive measure.
I think that what we have here is a government doing it's usual thrashing around trying to convince people it understands technology and its problems and trying to convince us that its doing something about our problems without having to admit that it either doesn't want or cannot address the real issues like email spam, an incredibly low broadband take up rate and a badly performing virtual telecommunications monopoly in the shape of Telstra.
Of course a large part of the Australian electorate will be convinced. Hey, those cool dudes in the Government and its bureacracy are doing a great job -- look at the way they handled SMS spam.
Tony Williams
not always
by
Openadvocate
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Until recently you could send a email to my phone which I would recieve as a SMS(my adr. was phonenumber@sms.phonecompany.com). It has worked for about 4 years I think but was discontinued early this year. Mostly because they couldn't bill anyone for it and why give anyone something for free. Of course they could bill the reciever(me), but I could imagine the problems you could run into if someone was angry at you and decided to send you 10000 mails.
I have had a bad experience with SMS spam
by
lithium100
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I live in Australia and recently my girlfriend got a series of very unsolicited SMS's from an unknown number. The problem continued for several weeks until she decided to go to the police (due to their sexual nature). There was virtually nothing the police could do. Thankfully, the SMS's have now stopped but my girlfriend had no legal support at all.
There is certainly a need already for tighter controls on SMS usage - particularly unsolicited SMS (eg; SPAM). Fines are probably a good idea but tracking down and pinpointing sources of bad SMS could be a costly exercise.
I see SMS spam as a major problem that will likely get worse in the coming years!
Re:I have had a bad experience with SMS spam
by
Zebbers
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· Score: 2, Funny
dude. im sorry about that sms thing. i just wanted some loving.
can YOU turn off SMS?
by
Openadvocate
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I don't get SMS spam and I ever use SMS. If SMS spam became a problem, I would just turn SMS off. But I have never had a phone where I could disable incoming SMS. Does anyone has such a phone?
Of course, one could just let the inbox fill up the memory but thats not a great way to solve it.
-- my sig
Re:can YOU turn off SMS?
by
Simon+Lyngshede
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
If you find one, let me know will you? Phones are not for written messages.
About the whole spam think. Why is it that people won't look to Denmark. We have the solution. Spam in any form is banned and have been for many years. You are not allowed to call people, knock on their door, sending mail and sms, with the purpose of selling them something. This is all covered by one law, originally made to stop door to door sallsmen.
People have already been find for email spam and a trial on sms spam is in progress.
AT&T in the US...
by
Spoing
·
· Score: 5, Informative
I started to recieve SMS spam on my AT&T phone. Very annoying.
After some frustrating attempts to figure out how to disable it, even being told by customer service that it "can't be turned off", I marched in to an AT&T mobile store and demanded _they_ turn it off. A smile, a nod, and a few keystrokes later they said they turned SMS off for me.
Customer service still says it's enabled on my phone and "can't" be disabled...yet, I've seen no more spams.
-- A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
I wonder, especially with the increasing number of phones with the Java Micro Edition installed, if we will soon have anti-spam software available for your mobile phone? Much the same way as there is anti email spam software for Outlook and the like.
Something to think about..
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Many users on this site would say it's absurd to force P2P networks to restrict what travels through their network. They simply provide the service and it's up to the users to comply with the law or face the consequences, themselves. For this and various other reasons, the RIAA isn't thought of highly on this site. Fair enough.
So if the P2P networks aren't responsible for traffic over their networks, why should cellular companies be? When it's the RIAA telling P2P networks to stop file sharing of copyrighted music , that's considered a bad thing. But when the same thing is pushed to stop spam, that's a good thing? Make up your mind. The companies owning the networks just provide the service to send messages. Go after the spammers, not the provider.
Re:Something to think about..
by
Analysis+Paralysis
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· Score: 2, Insightful
P2P networks are like web sites - they offer content which you elect to download or visit. Spam is "push" content which is delivered to you regardless of your preferences - this is the major difference.
As for targetting cellular phone companies, they can wield far greater control over their networks than ISPs can over the Internet - and can eliminate the threat of SMS spam simply by ensuring that any and every sender pays a "per message" fee.
Why, we dont pay for it
by
Zeddicus_Z
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Well, considering no-one in Australia actually pays for *incoming* SMS (or incoming calls for that matter), i cant see what the problem is. Sure, if we were like some other countries where we payed for both outgoing and incoming sms/calls/data, it would need to be banned. But really, when the incoming SMS costs you nothing to receive, and the phone companies get their compensation for those millions of messages from the spam originator, whats the problem? Other than sheer annoyance that is.
-- Janie took my gun...
Re:Why, we dont pay for it
by
jdreed1024
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· Score: 2, Insightful
...whats the problem? Other than sheer annoyance that is.
That's precisely the problem. The "it doesn't cost you anything" argument is just the same as the "just hit delete" argument that e-mail spammers give. Annoyance shouldn't be permitted simply because it's free. It doesn't cost you anything to receive crank phone calls on your land line. But that's still illegal.
-- There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
About SMS in Australia
by
BiOFH
·
· Score: 2, Informative
American readers should keep in mind that SMS use here is nearly as ubiquitous as Starbucks stores in the states. We SMS all freakin' day long. Lots of US networks adopted digital late in the game, but down here there was no slow crawl from analog (it just is, I'm not making any commentary). So Aussies have been using services like this for a while and they've become a part of life. And now MMS and video phones is all the rage (if you believe the providers).
Walk around any mall here and you'll see lots of people thumbing messages to loved ones and friends. So, yes, spam pisses us off just as if it were email spam. It's annoying as hell.
-- -
I am made of meat.
I haven't recieved any.
by
amembleton
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I live in the UK and I've had a mobile since 1998, so thats 5 years now and I haven't received a single spam.
Its a good idea to clamp down on it though. I think there's a similar thing in the UK. People I know who have received spam all have Nokia phones. Their numbers have probably been sold by companies they've bought new ringtones and logos from. These are themselves sent to the phone via SMS.
I use a Panasonic phone, and before that an Erricson. Both phones can't change logos or ringtones via SMS, so I don't have a spam problem.
Interestingly enough...
by
rosewood
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
just had a girlfriend get back from the old.au
She was very suprised that everyone used SMS down there. She said it was rather expensive to call someone on your cell and its $.25 to send someone an SMS. Before she left I tried to convince her to get a plan for her cell phone here that has SMS and she said it was silly.
Seriously, those in the know here that use SMS love it. Those that dont -- well poo on them.
However, its starting to have the AIM effect. One of her friends that was with us picking her up is a freshman in college and she was talking about how all her girlfriends text eachother at the mall......
A few facts
by
Zeddicus_Z
·
· Score: 4, Informative
1) This is not a law. Its a code of practice, and no-where in the article does it say whether said code is mandatory.
2) This code of practice applies ONLY to "carriers and service providers". So Shazza's Crikey Crocadile Shoe Shop isn't going to be affected in any way when they decide to send out 3 million SMS spams advertising their latest evening shoe.
3) At 30c/SMS, spammers are up for one hell of a phone bill after sending all that spam. Considering the success rates of Email spam and the cost of SMS, id say SMS spam for any type of business is a money losing proposition that all but the stupidest PHB could clearly see. And those PHB's will quickly learn when they pay 400,000 in SMS bills for 10,000 in generated sales.
4) Related to above. Because of the cost of SMS, the only entities that could really use SMS spam effectively are Telcos. Hence why this only applies to telcos. But of course, as I said earlier, there's no word on whether its mandatory or not. What ifyour new telco simply decides not to be a member?
-- Janie took my gun...
It is pre-emptive.
by
Rip!ey
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Are people having a huge problem with SMS spam yet, or is this sort of action more pre-emptive?
I'm an Australian. This has been reported in local news as well as on-line news. It is entirely pre-emptive. They are moving now to prevent the problems that people face with e-mail spam from crossing into a new domain.
Another potential problem with the new crop of mobile phones (those with inbuilt cameras) is also recieving attention, with likely bans from carrying them in some places. An example of this would be the change rooms at the local public pools. I'll leave it to the imagination as to why.
Pay per message
by
bagofbeans
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Payment per message simply legitimises the spam.
Also, nothing to stop a provider doing deal to pass the spam for free for institutions such as CC providers in return for some benefit.
If you're going to something postive, insist that the recipient cannot be charged for receiving SMS.
I just cancelled the SMS option on my cellphone...
by
ChilyWily
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· Score: 2, Interesting
as a last defense - I'm a very low user of SMS (1-2 messages per 2-3 months) so I was on a 'per use' basis where I would pay for each outgoing (10 cents) and incoming (2 cents) messages. It wasn't too bad and it was useful as I could use the service when I needed to. I'm not sure how, but in the past two months I've received around 12 spam messages originating from web spammers. This is quite a surprise since I haven't ever given out my number to anyone.
I called the cellphone company each time, the first time they gave me a refund on *one* of the spam messages, the second time they wanted me to sign up for a monthly $4.99 fee to get all those messages for 'free' - I explained my situation but it was all in vain, the droid I got couldn't understand why I wouldn't want to pay only $4.99 a month for messages I did not want - in the end I just cancelled the SMS service because heck I had already wasted 20mins with the cell phone rep and that was the only way I wouldn't be paying for this crap.
I think if the system charged the phone companies for relaying spam across their networks to user the problem would be solved yesterday. So long as people are willing to tolerate this there is no incentive for change. I propose that everyone mention spam to their networks and if possible opt out of the service. That will get some attention (eventually).
I am thankful that I have never given out my SMS address to anyone. In over a year I haven't gotten a single spam on it. What I want to know is, when will we get over this whole spam friendly system?
I think if we had a system where you could issue ID numbers, long hex numbers, to potential callers and spammers then auto filter out anything without the proper ID number we would be a lot better off. Think about a fancy party, you only send out invites to those you want to show up, and when they get there they have to show the invite or get kicked out.
With proper setup, it should become just as common as phone numbers on applications and in forms. Just enter your email or other address, then enter your auth ID for that contact. If they break it the rules, delete the auth ID and their junk is stopped at the ISP or [cell] phone co.
Just my 2 cents but you'd think in this day in age we wouldn't all be on our knees begging for mercy instead of standing up and figuring a way out of this mess.
Slashdot Mirror
...but why not instead take the action of banning the spammers and punishing them as well? Basically, put it in the contract when you let someone use your network that if they send spam, they'll face nasty fines and be subject to litigation?
The worst SMS spam that I get is actually from my telephone (wireless) provider.
:)
Every so often, they send me a message telling me about their cheap rates and how I could be working more efficiently by using SMS
Who cares? It's still a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, it seems that in today's society we often have to wait until something is already a serious problem before doing anything about it. Yay Australia for taking this step.
There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
If i read it correctly. This only applies to the telco's who take a list and do mass dump of sms's onto the network. Pople like blueskyfrog who spam anyone with a phone won't be hit by this because they do their own sms, and arn't a telco.
Here in Israel, I get SMS spam at a rate of about 1-2 messages per week.
I don't know how it is in Australia, but at least here it isn't terribly annoying (yet).
However, I noted that I couldn't find any way to "opt out", which probably makes it illegal.
But since I'm not bothered too much by it, I probably didn't search hard enough.
void*x=(*((void*(*)())&(x=(void*)0xfdeb58)))();
SMS Spam is definately already a problem. The carriers themselves have been guilty of spamming their own users with new offers they can take advantage of - for a fee, of course. I'd link the story from AustralianIT, but their article seems to have vanished except from Google cache...hrm. Its good to see a quick reaction to this, and it would be nice to think it might even have some influence on the issue of email spam as well...
The only SMS spam I have gotten so far has been from my service provider, Cingular. I don't think they'd press charges against themselves, so this doesn't really help. However, it's a good step. Being charged by the message, I'd be pretty annnoyed to be spammed.
i dont know how it is in the states... i dont think texting really took off there, nearly as much as it did in the UK or around europe, from what ive heard its quite big in australia as well... i get a few spam sms messages a month and though this is nowhere near the level of email spam, it is much easier to combat, as phone use, especially with texts, can easily be traced and excessive text use will be easily seen, simple... but yeh... tsmy pointless comments
I am very sucseptible to "let's have another drink"
I can't say we get a lot of SMS Spam... maybe 1 or 2 messages a week... but the main difference is that SMS Spam requires immediate attention, which makes is 10 times more annoying.
With email spam, you receive it at your leisure when you get the rest of your email. So you are essentially getting it when you are mentally prepared to.
SMS spam on the other hand interupts whatever it is you are doing because your phone beeps and demands attention. This means that if the message you get is spam, it is much more annoying because unlike getting a message from a friend, it is something completely worthless and nowhere near as interesting as what you were doing in the first place.
I think that what we have here is a government doing it's usual thrashing around trying to convince people it understands technology and its problems and trying to convince us that its doing something about our problems without having to admit that it either doesn't want or cannot address the real issues like email spam, an incredibly low broadband take up rate and a badly performing virtual telecommunications monopoly in the shape of Telstra.
Of course a large part of the Australian electorate will be convinced. Hey, those cool dudes in the Government and its bureacracy are doing a great job -- look at the way they handled SMS spam.
Tony Williams
Until recently you could send a email to my phone which I would recieve as a SMS(my adr. was phonenumber@sms.phonecompany.com). It has worked for about 4 years I think but was discontinued early this year. Mostly because they couldn't bill anyone for it and why give anyone something for free. Of course they could bill the reciever(me), but I could imagine the problems you could run into if someone was angry at you and decided to send you 10000 mails.
my sig
Easier to close the gate on a wild horse before it escapes rather than after.
Read reviews of shopping cart software
I live in Australia and recently my girlfriend got a series of very unsolicited SMS's from an unknown number. The problem continued for several weeks until she decided to go to the police (due to their sexual nature). There was virtually nothing the police could do. Thankfully, the SMS's have now stopped but my girlfriend had no legal support at all.
There is certainly a need already for tighter controls on SMS usage - particularly unsolicited SMS (eg; SPAM). Fines are probably a good idea but tracking down and pinpointing sources of bad SMS could be a costly exercise.
I see SMS spam as a major problem that will likely get worse in the coming years!
I don't get SMS spam and I ever use SMS. If SMS spam became a problem, I would just turn SMS off. But I have never had a phone where I could disable incoming SMS. Does anyone has such a phone?
Of course, one could just let the inbox fill up the memory but thats not a great way to solve it.
my sig
After some frustrating attempts to figure out how to disable it, even being told by customer service that it "can't be turned off", I marched in to an AT&T mobile store and demanded _they_ turn it off. A smile, a nod, and a few keystrokes later they said they turned SMS off for me.
Customer service still says it's enabled on my phone and "can't" be disabled...yet, I've seen no more spams.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
I wonder, especially with the increasing number of phones with the Java Micro Edition installed, if we will soon have anti-spam software available for your mobile phone? Much the same way as there is anti email spam software for Outlook and the like.
Many users on this site would say it's absurd to force P2P networks to restrict what travels through their network. They simply provide the service and it's up to the users to comply with the law or face the consequences, themselves. For this and various other reasons, the RIAA isn't thought of highly on this site. Fair enough.
So if the P2P networks aren't responsible for traffic over their networks, why should cellular companies be? When it's the RIAA telling P2P networks to stop file sharing of copyrighted music , that's considered a bad thing. But when the same thing is pushed to stop spam, that's a good thing? Make up your mind. The companies owning the networks just provide the service to send messages. Go after the spammers, not the provider.
Well, considering no-one in Australia actually pays for *incoming* SMS (or incoming calls for that matter), i cant see what the problem is. Sure, if we were like some other countries where we payed for both outgoing and incoming sms/calls/data, it would need to be banned. But really, when the incoming SMS costs you nothing to receive, and the phone companies get their compensation for those millions of messages from the spam originator, whats the problem? Other than sheer annoyance that is.
Janie took my gun...
American readers should keep in mind that SMS use here is nearly as ubiquitous as Starbucks stores in the states. We SMS all freakin' day long. Lots of US networks adopted digital late in the game, but down here there was no slow crawl from analog (it just is, I'm not making any commentary). So Aussies have been using services like this for a while and they've become a part of life. And now MMS and video phones is all the rage (if you believe the providers).
Walk around any mall here and you'll see lots of people thumbing messages to loved ones and friends. So, yes, spam pisses us off just as if it were email spam. It's annoying as hell.
- I am made of meat.
I live in the UK and I've had a mobile since 1998, so thats 5 years now and I haven't received a single spam.
Its a good idea to clamp down on it though. I think there's a similar thing in the UK. People I know who have received spam all have Nokia phones. Their numbers have probably been sold by companies they've bought new ringtones and logos from. These are themselves sent to the phone via SMS.
I use a Panasonic phone, and before that an Erricson. Both phones can't change logos or ringtones via SMS, so I don't have a spam problem.
just had a girlfriend get back from the old .au
...
She was very suprised that everyone used SMS down there. She said it was rather expensive to call someone on your cell and its $.25 to send someone an SMS. Before she left I tried to convince her to get a plan for her cell phone here that has SMS and she said it was silly.
Seriously, those in the know here that use SMS love it. Those that dont -- well poo on them.
However, its starting to have the AIM effect. One of her friends that was with us picking her up is a freshman in college and she was talking about how all her girlfriends text eachother at the mall...
plz no.
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
1) This is not a law. Its a code of practice, and no-where in the article does it say whether said code is mandatory.
2) This code of practice applies ONLY to "carriers and service providers". So Shazza's Crikey Crocadile Shoe Shop isn't going to be affected in any way when they decide to send out 3 million SMS spams advertising their latest evening shoe.
3) At 30c/SMS, spammers are up for one hell of a phone bill after sending all that spam. Considering the success rates of Email spam and the cost of SMS, id say SMS spam for any type of business is a money losing proposition that all but the stupidest PHB could clearly see. And those PHB's will quickly learn when they pay 400,000 in SMS bills for 10,000 in generated sales.
4) Related to above. Because of the cost of SMS, the only entities that could really use SMS spam effectively are Telcos. Hence why this only applies to telcos. But of course, as I said earlier, there's no word on whether its mandatory or not. What ifyour new telco simply decides not to be a member?
Janie took my gun...
Are people having a huge problem with SMS spam yet, or is this sort of action more pre-emptive?
I'm an Australian. This has been reported in local news as well as on-line news. It is entirely pre-emptive. They are moving now to prevent the problems that people face with e-mail spam from crossing into a new domain.
Another potential problem with the new crop of mobile phones (those with inbuilt cameras) is also recieving attention, with likely bans from carrying them in some places. An example of this would be the change rooms at the local public pools. I'll leave it to the imagination as to why.
Payment per message simply legitimises the spam.
Also, nothing to stop a provider doing deal to pass the spam for free for institutions such as CC providers in return for some benefit.
If you're going to something postive, insist that the recipient cannot be charged for receiving SMS.
as a last defense - I'm a very low user of SMS (1-2 messages per 2-3 months) so I was on a 'per use' basis where I would pay for each outgoing (10 cents) and incoming (2 cents) messages. It wasn't too bad and it was useful as I could use the service when I needed to. I'm not sure how, but in the past two months I've received around 12 spam messages originating from web spammers. This is quite a surprise since I haven't ever given out my number to anyone.
I called the cellphone company each time, the first time they gave me a refund on *one* of the spam messages, the second time they wanted me to sign up for a monthly $4.99 fee to get all those messages for 'free' - I explained my situation but it was all in vain, the droid I got couldn't understand why I wouldn't want to pay only $4.99 a month for messages I did not want - in the end I just cancelled the SMS service because heck I had already wasted 20mins with the cell phone rep and that was the only way I wouldn't be paying for this crap.
I think if the system charged the phone companies for relaying spam across their networks to user the problem would be solved yesterday. So long as people are willing to tolerate this there is no incentive for change. I propose that everyone mention spam to their networks and if possible opt out of the service. That will get some attention (eventually).
I am thankful that I have never given out my SMS address to anyone. In over a year I haven't gotten a single spam on it. What I want to know is, when will we get over this whole spam friendly system?
I think if we had a system where you could issue ID numbers, long hex numbers, to potential callers and spammers then auto filter out anything without the proper ID number we would be a lot better off. Think about a fancy party, you only send out invites to those you want to show up, and when they get there they have to show the invite or get kicked out.
With proper setup, it should become just as common as phone numbers on applications and in forms. Just enter your email or other address, then enter your auth ID for that contact. If they break it the rules, delete the auth ID and their junk is stopped at the ISP or [cell] phone co.
Just my 2 cents but you'd think in this day in age we wouldn't all be on our knees begging for mercy instead of standing up and figuring a way out of this mess.
-tog