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Mobile Phone Spam?

camper's picture

Last night I received what I think is the first case of mass mobile phone SPAM in Qatar. In the early evening I got an SMS from 3406819963 which said:

CONGRATULATIONS! LOTTERY WINNER

Your mobile number attached to ticker number 5XX-XX won US$1.116,000.00

Call:00346-6-819-963.

lotterypostwin/-a-t-/malaysia.com

I thought "Oh man...now we're into mobile phone spam" and forgot about. Then, later this evening my friend with me received the exact same message. Now our two numbers are totally unrelated in sequence. Also, I'm a contract user and she's got a pay as you go account. I'm wondering if they are just SMSing a whole range of Q-Tel phone numbers just to see who will catch.

With e-mail we are now sort of oblivious to spam. It comes and goes and we don't really bother with it. But with this, it's a bit different since the message may catch you off guard and you may think that the message is from some real competition they entered. Worse still, most modern mobile phones highlight numbers so you may accidently dial it.

I'd be interested in the economics of this sort of scam. Surely it's costing the scammers a few cent per SMS message? I suppose the premium price number (I'm assuming it's a premioum price number in Spain since +34 is the Spanish country code) just has to be set at a high enough price point.

Over and above the economics, I'm also wondering about the liability of the mobile carrier. SMS is not like e-mail - the carrier should accept some liability and they can reliably trace who sent the message.

So did anyone else get the message? I'd be interested to know how many of you actually received it (any if anyone actually fell for it!).

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Comments

Baby Bear's picture

Baby Bear said Yeah ...

Yeah my mom got the exact same message. I do get some spam messages, but not as many as my mom does! For some reason her phone is more targeted. Whenever a new restaurant is opened, or some shop has sales, she's the first to know!
It can be really annoying, especially when the same message is sent more than once!

 

dweller's picture

dweller said Beware ...

I belive that anyone picking up on this could end up with a huge phone bill as when you call the number it's a premium line and you may not be able to close the call

 

Baps's picture

Baps said same here ...

yep got d same msg onma dads fone. its d exact same one but wit a diff no. jeez with fones now !!! i wonder wats next.........

 

bbb8's picture

bbb8 said haha what's next? ...

hahaha you wanna know what's next? i say stupid spam filters for mobile phones :D

 

Qatar Girl's picture

Qatar Girl said yaaaa.. i got the same ...

yaaaa..

i got the same msg..!!!!
when i recieved it ,i was like "WHATEVERRRRRRRRRR" !!

and my friend got it too..


 

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