Back in April 2012, The Consumerist reported that around 4.5 billion spam texts were sent to U.S. cell phones in 2011 (“Yeah, and I got about 2 billion of those myself,” I remember thinking).
Yesterday, The Consumerist released an article that gives a little insight into how those soul-crushingly irritating “Free $1,000 Gift Card” spam texts actually work. The good news is: the FTC has 29 people in their legal crosshairs, whom they believe to be responsible for 180 million of those texts. The “meh” news is: what about the other six quadrillion spam texts?
Anyway, for those unlucky enough to fall for the free gift card text scam, here’s a brief rundown of what actually happens:
You’re directed to a website that collects an awful lot of personal information, including medical data in some cases, before you’re allowed to proceed
You are taken to another site that requires participation in a bunch of “offers” before you can get the gift card
This required more personal data, including credit card numbers for “subscriptions” or to actually apply for credit
You’re told you have to get (i.e. trick) three more people into signing up before you can claim your gift card
You never, ever, EVER actually get a free $1,000 gift card, because if spammers actually delivered on their promises, they wouldn’t be spammers.
For the FTC to go after 29 people is a good start, but you know as well as I do there are probably a thousand more involved in these schemes. So if the “Free $1,000 Best Buy Gift Card” texts continue to arrive, just continue to ignore ‘em, like always.