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Mobile phones are an interesting technology. They can be used not just as a means of communication, but increasingly as a payment system. Each advance in communications and payment systems technology is inevitably exploited by the unscrupulous (think of fax spam, email spam, telemarketing, premium 1900 numbers; counterfeit currency, cheque fraud, credit card fraud, debit card fraud, identity theft and fraud associated with PayPal and other online payment systems). Eventually this behaviour is recognized and the public is usually protected from these scams by new laws, different business practices or consumer behaviour or technological solutions. We haven’t got there yet with mobile phones. In Australia, ordinary people are still very vulnerable to premium SMS scams.
Email spam is annoying enough. Comment spam on blogs can be quite vile – although I’m happy to say TypePad is much improved in this area. Unsolicited SMS (also known as text - and txt at Vodafone) is particularly annoying, and it is certain to become even more prevalent. But can you imagine receiving unsolicited spam which charges you content charges for the honour of receiving the spam? Essentially, that is what premium SMS scams are about.
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