In a span of a little more than a week, I received a lot of SMS SPAM from one particularly annoying company and to top it off, I just received an SMS-based scam!  Here’s the latest SMS SPAM I received:

From: +639152037070

Need cash fast? For employees, self-employed and professionals. Borrow 30K to 1M! NO Collateral, NO co-maker, NO pretermination charges! For the requirements, pls text bak or email chinatrust.loan@gmail.com. Apply via fax or email. 2-5 days processing. http://chinatrust.sulit.com.ph - CLAIRE

Here’s another SPAM:

From: +639152780189

Good day! This is to inform you that you need to claim and activate ur REWARDS AND PRIVILEGES at Prudential Market Resource Corporation – Rada branch, makati city ASAP. This is in line with our Thanksgiving program, of which, you are chosen to receive a: 1. FREE scholarship voucher fr0m Datamex Institure of Computer Technology 2. FREE protection policy 3. A minimun of 5 RAFFLE COUPONS for a P50,000 CASH RAFFLE PROMO. For m0re details and for ur claiming code which you will need upon claiming, pls call today at 8935642, 8944388, 8942416, 8403968, 8934142 and look for Ms Ethel Sumaylo. Thank u! (pls disregard if n0t interested)

and finally a low-life, scum-sucking scammer sends this:

From: +639278531195

by SMSCaster.com:>hon d2 ka mag reply load mo ako 900pesos

My SMS inbox had been relatively clean for the past 5 months or so and these SMS only started to come in after I gave my cellphone number to a certain credit card company…  I’ll do a little sleuthing and will report back what I dig up.  In the meantime BEWARE!

While rushing to finish a project today, I received yet another SMS SPAM:

From +639063338535

Goodnews! As part of Prudential Market Resource Corporation agency initiated sales promotion. You have been chosen [insert my real name here] to receive a Free Datamex Scholarship Certificate from our Goodwill Buendia Branch Office. For more info on how to claim said items. Pls. call 7516837 to 38 or 8904878 within 24 hrs upon receipt of this message and look for Ms. Nicole Lopez. We are available to receive your call frm 10-6pm. Thank you.

Why do I consider this an SMS SPAM?  The message does not conform to any of the provisions of the National Telecommunications Commission’s Memorandum Circular No. 03-03-2005 (Rules and Regulations on Broadcast Messaging Service) and 03-03-05A (Amendment to the Rules and Regulations on Broadcast Messaging Service dated March 15, 2005).  I will not further elaborate on the contents of the two memorandum circulars I enumerated but suffice to say that if I receive another message from the same sender with a similar content, it will go directly to the NTC.