A massive SMS spamming operation kicked out tens of millions of text messages, pestering unsuspecting recipients with links to fake sites flogging loans and free money. The operation was simple but smart. The system processed vast batches of phone numbers and curated custom messages on the fly with links to the fake sites. These fake sites urged spam victims to sign up with their name, email address and phone number and promised “free money… for real.” (It wasn’t.) Sometimes confused victims would message the spam number back. If the system spotted certain keywords, like “report” or “FCC,” their number would be added to a “stop list” so they wouldn’t be bothered again.
“This is unacceptable” explains Rick Dent from Finger Finance, “So many lenders in the industry are working hard to play by the rules and treat customer’s fairly, but we lose a lot of consumer confidence when companies exploit this. It is good that the regulator jumped on it and we are closer to getting a cleaner industry to work in.”
Source: TechCrunch
