Stop Sending Me Unsolicited Messages

I am not one known for his emotional outbursts, nor do I normally detest something so much that I feel I have to write about it here. However, recent events have caused me to change my ways, which is what I wanted to talk about now.

It all started about a month ago when out of nowhere I received an invitation from a "friend" to join a mobile friends network. I thought nothing much of it, I had previously seen so-called "friends networks" and read reviews on them (which were generally positive, I might add).
However, I was sceptical about letting my details be published in a big database that other people could search, especially with the huge rise in identity theft (apparently 1 in 4 people know someone who has had their identity stolen - either for financial purposes, or for other criminal activities where the only lead goes back to you).

So I left it initially, deciding to deal with it at a later date. Well, a week later I received another email purporting to come from the same person, telling me to sign up. Suddenly I got bombarded by these emails, this time coming from different people I knew to varying degrees (some I hadn't seen for years). So before wanting to reply to any of these (and to tell the people to stop sending me them), I decided to do a bit of online investigation (which I find myself doing way too often).

So, I went to google (go on, try it yourself, read the customers views) and searched for the company sms.ac (where the emails were coming from) and it came up with over 102,000 sites. The first one naturally being for the official site itself, but ALL the others being negative reports of people having signed up, giving in their hotmail details (including passwords!!!) and then, without their knowledge, everybody in their address books gets sent an invitation email to join up to this "mobile friends network". And if the recipients don't reply, or even if they click on the link to reject further participation, they keep on receiving the invitations.

And that's not all. In giving your mobile number to them, "premium" SMSs can be sent to you, the cost of which being added to your phone bill. I have found reports from people in the UK, France, USA, South Africa in the googled sites, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are lots more countries to add to this list (I didn't want to spend the whole weekend reading the complaints from people who had signed up - depression isn't my thing).

So, what should you do? Firstly, I would send an email to the person who "invited" you (to their proper email address, not the one where the invitation comes from) asking them if they wanted to send you the invitation. Tell them what's happening, how many emails from them you have in your inbox, and let them decide if that's how they want to treat their friends (because everyone in their address book will have received the same).

If you have signed up, check your mobile bill straight away. Any premium texts on there? How much? Take this up with your network provider - I'm sure they'll be interested to know about companies that are using their networks to send unsolicitated messages, and charging for them.

Terminate your SMS.ac account. Make sure you delete any login information you have saved in your account area, and then close down the online service linked to your mobile number.

There are plenty of organisations around the world that are there to protect the consumer. Find out which one is relevant in your country and take the matter up with them. There are also many laws that protect you (European, US SPAM email and SMS laws). Use them.

As for me, I've now set my SPAM filter to block any more of these "invitations" to at least have some piece and quiet in my inbox again. I just hope my friends take this advice, because otherwise they will be going "mobile" somewhere else.

Surf Safe