Get your free satellite system! or dealing with SMS spam

Sent: 5/11/06 1:51 PM
From: 501

Bergman@crookedstill.com / round / You just won a complete Satalite System Call 866.704.8454 now ask for Clair

Ahh.. my first SMS spam, complete with the misspelling and everything! I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I called and the guy barely spoke English. I asked to speak to his supervisor, who almost sounded like the first guy. He assured me that he was not the same guy – I couldn’t really tell. Anyway, I asked them where they got my phone number to send the text message, and he told me that “I was one of the lucky people selected to win a free satellite system… blah blah…” I asked him where he got my number. He told me that it was part of a list of numbers that they purchased. I hounded him for more information and it was going nowhere. He then told me that if I gave him my number he could put me on the Do Not Call list. Figuring that it would be better than nothing, I gave it to him. He then asked me for my name. I asked him why he needed my name if he never even had it to begin with. He said that was the way that DNC lists worked. I gave him a fake name… yea, good thinking Pablo! He then said with a chuckle that “somebody will be calling you from our customer service department with an offer”… I got REALLY pissed off and told him that I gave him that info so that they would take me off the list. He continued to laugh and tell me the same thing – I told him that if somebody called me I would contact the Better Business Bureau and he said “that really scares me!”. I almost lost it! I decided to stay calm and ask why he was being such a jerk. He then asked me “if I have any interest in satellite systems” to which I told him to go to hell and hung up on him. Can’t quite get the same effect as slamming the old-school phones down, ehh?

Anyway – I think I’ve shot myself in the foot with my investigative work. Now they know I got the SMS *and* which number I’m using, even if the name isn’t real. Great – I suppose I get to look forward to more of these. I did notify the owners of Crookedstill.com that somebody was using their domain name to send SMS spam – it’ll be interesting to see their response. I also called T-Mobile to see what they were doing to combat SMS spam. Their answer? NOTHING! They said that they can not control incoming text messages to my cell phone! I guess I shouldn’t be surprised! But what if I get a deluge of SMS spams and it puts me over my SMS limit? T-Mobile charges me for unsolicited messages?! Ridiculous!

Hopefully it won’t get bad… but it will only take time. The T-Mobile rep said that he could change my phone number – fan-friggin-tastic…

Anybody out there have any other ideas how to deal with this? What are my options?!
uggh…

Update!

I heard back from the people at Crookedstill.com

Hi Pablo. Thank you so much for alerting us of this problem. As you guessed, we have nothing to do with this text message and were before now, completely unaware of this issue. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We are looking into the source of this problem immediately so we can stop it from happening in the future. Again, sorry for the intrusion.

Sincerely,

Crooked Still (Corey, Aoife , Greg and Rushad)

Also found the FTC spam complaint form as well as the FCC CAN-SPAM webpage. Time to file a complaint!

Filing for: Pablo
has been received by the FCC Thanks for your information.
When inquiring about your complaint, be sure to reference the following confirmation number:

FORM475: 06-W11800613

Additionally, be sure to mention that you filed this complaint over the internet.
Finally, the carrier will have 30-45 days to respond to this complaint.

Thank You!