Yackity Blog Blog

I hate SPAM. SPAM is annoying and it makes one's work day inefficient. How many of us spend valuable time during the day to train SPAM filters to make sure they go to SPAM folders? One's mailbox gets clogged with messages that are marked SPAM whether they go to the deleted folders or not. Gone were the days when all messages one gets are real.

The past few days, I have been getting SMS SPAM. The first one I got, I let it go. I just deleted the message. But then more came and I was really getting ticked off. This morning, I called my mobile phone carrier, Cingular. I told the Cingular Customer Care representative that they should block SPAM SMS and asked what they are doing about it. The Cingular representative, Sandra, told me she put my mobile phone number under DO NOT CALL list/DO NOT SEND SPAM SMS list for Telemarketeers and other kind of organizations that bug and spam you. Apparently, by default, one's phone number is open for telemarketers and spammers. So, unless you are in Cingular's "DO NOT" list, one is open to all these SPAMMERS. Cingular's list is different from the National Do Not Call Registry. Hence, it does not matter if your mobile phone is registered in the US National Do Not Call Registry that is managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

So, if you don't want to be SPAMMED and you are a Cingular or a former AT&T Wireless customer who got integrated with Cingular, make sure that you have your mobile phone "BLOCKED" - I believe that is the term the Cingular Customer Care Representative used. If you are not with Cingular, ask your wireless carrier.

I will have to wait and see if I get anymore SMS SPAM, now that I'm in that list or am "BLOCKED". If I do, Cingular will definitely hear from me.