Mobile Spam on the rise

Definition of Mobile Spam:

Mobile Spam is to a mobile handset what email spam is to an e-mailbox.
It is defined as unsolicited commercial messages, which

• try to sell something to the user or
• ask the user to call a phone number, which may be a premium-rate service or
• destroy or change handset settings or
• are simply messages of a commercial nature that are considered threatening, or intruding upon a user's privacy.

80% of mobile phone users surveyed by University of St. Gallen, Switzerland and bmw wireless said tey have received unsolicited text messages (mobile spam). The survey forms part of a report -- "Insights into Mobile Spam, World's First Collaborative Empirical Study" -- on the growing problem of mobile spam.  Click here for a look at the Table of Contents of the report.

Related:

: Techworthy on SMS Spam Filtering Solutions

: Trojan virus targets handsets with SMS spam

: Mobiletracker: "Mobile Spam spreads"

: CNN: "Spam invasion targets mobile phones"

: New measures launched by O2 Ireland to block m-spam

: Mobile operators in the UK apply content controls

Comments

[Jon]

Only to be exacerbated further by the constant spamming that will be generated by the rise in mobile gambling.

Internet casinos have a name for it and so it will be so with mobile phone users.

[Helen]

except that it's more expensive to spam via mobile than email (currently) so the commercial model isn't as attractive per se. Spam, and more importantly, scam is a problem, which is why I set up Grumbletext - www.grumbletext.co.uk with Adrian Harris a couple of years back. But it isn't at the same level that email spam/scam is at currently. And as long as the client has to pay for each SMS then that will limit it somewhat. And let's hope the operators work out how to deal with the problem.

[Jessica]

Yea I got hit up by soem Mobil phone spam trying to get me to call a 900 number. From what I can understand it wont be long before we sytart getting telemarking call via our cell phones to.

[Priit Vaikmaa]

This only means that bulk SMS marketing is really on the rise. However, business owners should remember that spamming is never a good marketing practice. Check more information about good SMS marketing practice from TextMagic.