Young mobile users targeted by spammers

by Ben Bold, Brand Republic 25-Apr-08, 10:10

LONDON - Three-quarters of 18- to 24-year-old mobile phone users have been recipients of text message spam, according to research published by SMS security firm Cloudmark.

Although younger people were clearly the most targeted, a large proportion of all phone users have received unsolicited messages, with 66% saying that they have been spammed.

The research, conducted for Cloudmark by YouGov, found that 28% of phone users blamed spam on their service providers and 44% said they would consider changing provider because of spam. The latter figure rose to 65% if the frequency of unwanted messages rose to one or more a month.

In terms of spam type, 10% of respondents said they had been targeted by phishing attacks, where recipients are encouraged to divulge personal data; 38% received messages containing a link to a WAP site; and 45% of respondents reported attempts to trick them into calling a premium-rate phone number.

Neil Cook, Cloudmark's head of technology, EMEA, said: "It's a fallacy to think that mobile messaging spam isn't yet an issue in the UK. Not only is it already a problem, but when you see that three-quarters of young people are subjected to mobile spam, the scale of the challenge comes into sharp focus."

Respondents to the survey were also asked whether the issue of spam would make them less likely to participate in an opt-in mobile marketing campaign -- 66% said that it would.

"Mobile spam may not be in the same league as traditional email spam, but as this survey shows, subscribers' tolerance of unwanted and unsolicited mobile messages is virtually nil. That means mobile operators simply can't afford to adopt a wait-and-see strategy."

Comments

Mark Bridge - 25/04/2008

It's curious that the survey looked at 18-24 year olds - if the messages really are being sent by "spammers", they're unlikely to know the age of the person they're targeting. If only all the mobile networks operated the same type of system as Vodafone's VSPAM: forward unwanted messages to 87726 and the company will investigate. http://help.vodafone.co.uk/DeviceFAQ.php?FAQID=100196&s=1&ModelID=85&class=101&h=0:218:48:101:&e=0