Mobile Phone Spam

Mobile phone spam is a form of spamming directed at the text messaging service of a mobile phone. It is described as mobile spamming, SMS spam, text spam, or SpaSMS but is most frequently referred to as m-spam.

As the popularity of mobile phones surged in the early 2000s, frequent users of text messaging began to see an increase in the number of unsolicited (and generally unwanted) commercial advertisements being sent to their telephones through text messaging. This can be particularly annoying for the recipient, because unlike email, it is usually difficult or impossible to delete an SMS message without reading it.

In addition, some wireless service providers, notably in the USA, charge a fee for every message received, including spam, placing users in the unenviable position of having to pay to receive unwanted spam on their mobile phones.

Some telecommunications providers believe that SMS spam is going to be the next big challenge as the fast development of technology allows SMS spam to be sent at relatively low cost using Internet SMS portals.