When Your Entire Work Day Is Made Up Of Interruptions
You Sue Me, I Sue You
When Your Entire Work Day Is Made Up Of Interruptions
You Sue Me, I Sue You

Gullible Forwarders Own Mobile Phones Too

Scams

from the they're-everywhere! dept

Mon, Nov 7th 2005 2:46am — Mike Masnick
What is it about a slightly different medium that makes people lose all sense of reason? For years, one of the most popular urban legends/hoaxes is that Bill Gates, AOL or Disney will give you prizes or money for forwarding on an email. It seems that some random person thought it would be funny to start a similar hoax via text messaging... and it worked. Vodafone is apparently now spending some time trying to track down the hoaxer who sent out text messages promising free air time on Vodafone to anyone who forwarded the message to 13 other users. However, where the guy got stupid was that he included a (non-emergency) police phone number to call for anyone who didn't get the credit. The police, as you might imagine, are pissed off at all of the phone calls they received, which could open the hoaxer up to criminal charges for interfering with the police.
5 Comments

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  1. identicon
    dohhhhhhh, 7 Nov 2005 @ 2:46am

    Included a police number to call?

    Really? That is pretty funny.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    SV, 7 Nov 2005 @ 4:05am

    No Subject Given

    In my country the mobile operators actually gave 20 cars to people who sent SMS at a specified promo number (lottery). So don't be amazed someone believes this. It makes more sense than e-mails - since after all Vodaphone profits from the messages.

    Of course if you're smart you'd not buy into this at all, never mind if hoax or not.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Andrew Strasser, 7 Nov 2005 @ 4:54am

    Something for nothing.

    Like comedy really. Text messaging is inside network.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Dam, 7 Nov 2005 @ 5:27am

    We can Only Hope

    We can only hope that these people don't vote.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Teleflip, 7 Nov 2005 @ 7:22am

    Stupid cell phone trick of the day

    Stupid cell phone trick of the day:
    With teleflip.com - A service that lets you send email to yourphonenumber@teleflip.com and have it delivered to the phone, regardless of carrier... anyone can send [costly?] email messages to anyone they want to send to, with whatever advertisement they want include - the sender doesn't need to know the recipient's carrier, he only needs a cell phone number.

    Now I wonder how many people are going to test this, using their own telephone number... ie; 2125551212@teleflip.com

    [ link to this | view in thread ]


When Your Entire Work Day Is Made Up Of Interruptions
You Sue Me, I Sue You
When Your Entire Work Day Is Made Up Of Interruptions
You Sue Me, I Sue You
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