Get-rich-quick schemes, explicit pornography (or the @neowin.net ever popular penis enlargement), urgent appeals for help from Nigerian colonels. Coming soon to a cell phone near you?
The bulk "spam" that now accounts for as much as three-quarters of all e-mail traffic could soon insinuate its way into movie theaters, subways, and anywhere else Americans take their cell phones, experts said at a forum on spam on Thursday.
Text-messaging services on newer cell phones could enable spammers to reach a tempting new audience, conference panelists said.
Federal law prohibits most telemarketers from dialing cell phones, but no such regulations prevent spammers from sending messages to addresses like 2025551212+cellphonecarrier.com. Because many text services carry a per-message charge, costs to consumers could mount quickly.
Wireless spam is already a problem in Japan, where text messaging has been a popular feature of cell-phone service for years, said an official with NTT DoCoMo Inc., the Japanese telecommunications giant.