@Amy - Really? No offense, but can you point to specifics? In my dealings with the CTIA, they come across as maids with white gloves, tasked with touching-up the neatly kept affairs of short code marketers. 6 months after your post, I still only see red tape.

I hear little about shutting down VOIP, long-code and SMTP gateway offenders. *Please* put down the white gloves and pick up a toilet brush. Given the premium we pay for the right to use the short code channel, we deserve that.

@Hans, what steps have you taken referenced in your comment, "we work very hard to stop people..."

Thank you

Again great job!

Thanks,

Hans Hegge
CEO
Text Ripple, Inc

The "long string of numbers following //TF" is probably data for updating the phone itself, and normally would not be visible to phones on that system. In fact, phones on the TF system do not charge for messages from that code, because the messages are used only for phone updates and responses from TF for service confirmations, etc.

If the above does not explain why you receive such messages, just call TracFone and tell them about receiving such messages in error -- I'm sure they will want to correct this.

In a contract, both parties receive "consideration".

With your "the TV I paid for" contract, the vendor receives your money as their consideration. As your consideration, via a connection (cable, satellite, etc.), you can select various TV stations from which to receive transmissions. The content of those transmissions may include movies, news, sports, commercials, etc. You willingly chose to enter into a contract to receive those transmissions.

I would have thought someone as smart as you would realize this.

And, considering that you are smarter than everyone, I have a humble request. Please contact the less intelligent people at the TV stations and provide them with the brilliant concept you must have, in which they can eliminate commercials yet still raise money so that they can transmit your favourite programs.

On now, onward...

With a phone contract, the vendor once again receives your money as consideration. The consideration you receive from them is to simply act as the carrier of your transmissions. Specific content is not a factor, in regard to the contract.

Of special note, most often the contract sets specific limitations (volume, size, etc.) for the various types of transmissions allowed. Exceeding those limits entitles the vendor to additional consideration (typically at a much higher rate than the original package).

Quite often, a contract includes a limit on the number of text messages one can receive. Therefore, spurious messages (AKA spam) are, for the most part, unwelcome, as they can potentially cause an additional charge to be incurred by the phone's owner, if they cause the owner to exceed their threshold for total number of text messages allowed.

Here's a parallel example of sending spam messages:

Suppose the post office decided they were no longer going to charge any companies for delivering their advertisements (AKA junk mail). Instead, they would charge the recipient a fee for each piece of mail put into their mailbox. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Bordering on absurd? It's scary to think of the potential cost the recipient would incur as more and more companies take advantage of this free advertising.

Now, simply substitute the physical mailbox in this scenario with a virtual mailbox on a phone. This is the concept you are defending, SmarterThanYou. You call it "free speech", when in fact, it is actually "paid for by the other guy" speech?

On a final note, I'm not sure why you attributed this particular issue, in a predjudiced manner, to a particular segment of society, but let me assure you that the issue is being complained about worldwide, to all of the telecom companies.

I don't see what purpose it will serve them to change the number and continue to send other than jsut trying to annoy people. I'm also on the Do Not Call List for several years.

If you're lucky, it accomplishes nothing.

If you're not lucky, it confirms to the spammer that you actually read and respond to their spam, so you end up getting more spam than you would have otherwise.