While dumping the alt.cellular.sprintpcs bit bucket, I heard John Holmes
say:

> Last night, just before midnight, I received a SPAM text message as follows:
>
> "from market@fastloanopt.com
>
> Subject: loan. 1500 loan, no credit check
>
> Message:No credit check or fax needed, instant online approval.
> wwwfastloanopt.com"
>
> How they got my Sprint mobile number, in order to send me that SPAM, is
> unknown. I give my number only to a few family members.
>
> This morning I went to that web site on my regular Internet browser, and it
> is parked--it is not even activated!
>
> It seems that, even had I responded to the text message, I would not have
> been considered for a "loan."
>
> So what gives? What is the point in some SPAMMER sending messages and using
> an invalid return URL? Are they phishing?

It looks like someone got ahead of themselves and sent out the spam run
before the site was ready. The domain was registered on Mar. 24th. :-)

> I phoned Sprint and they blocked further messages from that sender, but I am
> curious as to what the objective was in sending me the message in the first
> place.
>
> Anyone know what's going on???

I believe the majority of the text spam originates as email sent through
one of the many SMS mail-to-text gateways, likely just using sequential
numbering. The cost to send it is so low that the spammers don't care if
a lot of the addresses bounce. Since I pay per message, I've blocked
most of the major gateways in my SMS filter using my online Sprint
account's "Message Settings". Here's the list that I have blocked so
far:

cingularme.com
email.uscc.net
ivctext.com
lolatext.com
message.alltel.com
message.sprintpcs.com
msg.acsalaska.com
mymetropcs.com
nmode.com
pcs.rogers.com
qwestmp.com
sms.sasktel.com
teleflip.com
tmomail.net
txt.att.net
utext.com
vmobil.com
vmobile.ca
vtext.com
vzwpix.com

Since I've blocked those gateways, the only text messages I've gotten
are free ones from Sprint CS.

--
Dutch