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Posts Tagged ‘Frends’

Text scams are increasingly becoming common again due to the forthcoming Philippine national and local elections, as political campaigns take to rampant text messaging for faster political mobilization. Earlier, I received a text message with the following content:

May GOD bountifuly bles u & ur family. Have a blissful day Fr Frends of UNI-MAD Party List, United Movement Against Drugs no.181′Luv ur famly, say NO 2 drugs.

According to the Philippine National Statistical Coordination Board, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) reported an average of 250 million text messages sent daily in 2005. A more updated study reported an upsurge, which more than doubled the said figure in 2009, along with a growth in the number of mobile phone users (i.e., over 63 million).

Numbers such as these in a country known as the “text capital of the world” set the stage for the proliferation of texts scams such as one that features the following message:

CONGRATULATIONS!!!Your # WON TOYOTA AVANZA car w/ 300thou via electronic last Dec.21,2009. For details,please call now Rene Samonte. of Phil. Info. Center on this #.

As similar instances of text scams have already occurred in the past, it is best to take heed and be wary of your mobile phone activities before you fall prey to potential text scams.