Text Messaging Featured Article

Earlier this week, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it had settled a prominent text messaging scam to the tune of $10 million.

According to analysis of the news provided by the Boston Globe, the defendants in the case, Lin Miao and Andrew Bachman, agreed to surrender greater than $10 million in assets that include cash, diamonds, cars, and properties in Los Angeles and Chicago. The defendants reportedly conducted a number of scams through various companies that they controlled.

The companies named in the case – Tatto Media, WinBigBidLow, Bullroarer, Inc., Shaboom Media, Bune, Mobile Media Products, Chairman Ventures, Galactic Media, and Virtus Media – reportedly provided “love tips” and weekly horoscopes to users without their permission.

Visitors to associated websites would reportedly be enticed with prizes like free tickets to concerts after they entered their phone numbers into website forms. Once the scammers had individuals' phone numbers, they would post bogus charges to their phone bills that were listed under names that did not personally identify any company or individual. The Boston Globe lists “77050IQ12CALL8663611606” and “25184USBFIQMIG” as two examples of the names users might find associated with such charges.

Any customer who was savvy enough to find a phone number for the scamming companies, the report says, may eventually find a representative who would promise monetary refunds. The companies would never reimburse them, however. In total, Miao reportedly received approximately $29 million from the scam, and Bachman received approximately $4.5 million.

Telephony-based scams are, unfortunately for the customers involved, nothing new. Just last month, Globe Telecom (News - Alert) released its own warning that urged its mobile customers to shy away from texts that mention discounts, refunds, prizes, or stranded relatives. Such warnings may be too little and too late for those already fallen victim to the fake text messages. And Globe Telecom is not the only company involved with scammers that attempt to pose as well-known businesses.

Overall, whether or not scammers attempt to masquerade themselves as global enterprises or simply make up their own companies that have official-sounding names, customers must always be on the lookout. It is never wise to send out personally-identifying information through a text, and reputable businesses will never ask for social security numbers or similar types of data through channels as unofficial as texts.