Well, I can't say I was surprised to read an article on The Register that we may soon be seeing a surge in the amount of spam delivered to our mobile phones. I actually just received my first bit of spam courtesy of Verizon Wireless last week and was still as uninterested in male enhancement or becoming immediately wealthy as when I get these messages on my personal or business e-mail.
Cloudmark, a provider in the emerging mobile security space, has stated that "text messaging via the internet provides a cost-effective platform for spammers to reach mobile subscribers. While numerically insignificant targets in the past, emails associated with mobile numbers are now showing up on the radar of spammers and phishers."
The statistics for mobile spam aren't as ugly as regular e-mail, where 60-70% of the traffic is spam. The article noted that "one in four messages sent to mobile devices via email in North America are made up of spam, according to figures from Cloudmark's mobile operator clients in the region."
One new aspect to this threat is that it could jeopardize emerging mobile advertising and marketing opportunities that providers are betting on to provide much-needed revenue streams. Subscribers who are inundated with spam are unlikely to tolerate legitimate advertisements on their mobile phone. Have you started to receive more spam on your mobile phone? Is your provider effective at blocking/filtering unwanted messages to your mobile phone?
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