Flap your Lips Friday
Posted by Michelle Moquin on 15th July 2011
Good morning!
Readers: Thank you for the many e-mails that I received informing me of the comments being “Off” yesterday. I rectified it as soon as I had the opportunity. Thank you for taking the time to e-mail me, and for your patience.
With respect to the recruitment of “Girlz”, I also received many e-mails asking me what is a “Girlz” and what are the requirements to be one. I have been recruiting “Girlz” for so many years now that I forget the newbies of the blog may not know who the “Girlz” are, and what “Girlz” is all about. Before I answer those questions, let me first preface by saying that I do not answer e-mails from readers who e-mail with questions regarding “Girlz” or anything else with respect to my blog. All questions should be addressed to the blog, and I will answer them on the blog.
So since Christine is asking on the blog, I will dedicate a few moments to answer her questions.
Christine: First of all, to have the opportunity to become a “Girlz”, you must be a girl, a female being. That is the only requirement. All a girl needs to do, is state that she wants to become a “Girlz”. All girls wishing to become “Girlz” are volunteers.
I issue the clarion call for “Girlz”. Becoming a “Girlz” is a function of Madaline. Madaline will decide if you become a “Girlz”.
Once a girl decides she wants to become a “Girlz”, she is taken aboard an alien ship by Madaline. At that point she immediately loses her earth body and her earth brain and consciousness is transferred into a “suit”. Her brain is then expanded (more area of her earth brain will be initialized for use). Once a girl has gone up she will never be able to return to Earth in the body she left as. She will then be trained to perform the duties that she tests most appropriately for.
Girls: Do you want an opportunity to become a “Girlz”? If so, blog me. Let it be known and you will be taken.
Onto today’s write: We all have cell phones – Here’s something we all should be aware of. Another warning from Scambusters.
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Mobile World Sparks Cell Phone Spaham Onslaught
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With more than half the world’s population now using mobile communication devices, cell phone spaham is on the rise — despite government clampdown efforts.
Mobile phone spaham, also known as m-spam, can arrive in two forms — either as an email or as a text or SMS message (which some clever person labeled spaSMS).
In most cases it’s illegal, but what’s really infuriating is that unless you have an unlimited text plan with your cell phone service provider, you end up actually paying for this garbage.
Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to significantly reduce or stop cell phone spaham, as we’ll explain later.
But first let’s take a brief look at the scale of the problem and what the law says a person can or can’t do when it comes to sending messages, whether text or email, to wireless devices.
A hint of how many cell phone spaham text messages are out there can be gleaned from recent action by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), who, in February 2011, asked a court to shut down a company that was allegedly sending out an average of 85 cell phone spaham text messages a minute — 5.5 million in 40 days.
Worse, the financial services being offered purportedly didn’t exist and the person who sent them out allegedly then sold the details of anyone who replied as leads to other financial services businesses.
That’s the mass-market end of the problem. At the individual level, consumer campaigner David Morris reported in the Charlotte Sun Herald newspaper recently on how one of his readers had been alarmed to be alerted to an incoming message on her cell phone in the early hours of the morning.
But, presumably with her heart pounding, when she checked, it turned out to be just a piece of cell phone spaham.
Morris reports that research from the Pew Center shows that 72 percent of users now receive cell phone text.
It’s fair to assume that most of them receive cell phone spaham at some time or another since another survey, by anti-virus group AVG and consultants The Ponemon Institute, says that two thirds of all cell phone users now say they are worried about receiving marketing ads.
What The Law Says About Cell Phone Spaham
Like all electronic junk mail, cell phone spaham was targeted by the CAN-SPAM Act of 2005, which required marketers to seek “express prior authorization” before sending out email advertisements.
But in those days, most cell phone spaham arrived by email rather than text messages, which were in their infancy then. Today, according to Morris, we send and receive around 5 billion text messages every day, though there are no figures on how many of those are spaham.
However, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which was empowered under CAN-SPAM to police the spahamming of wireless devices, has acted to block the flow.
Under FCC rules, the same “express prior authorization” applies to emails on cell phones, and you can’t send a commercial text message to anyone whose number is listed on the Do Not Call (DNC) Registry.
Even if a person is not DNC-listed, you can’t send a text message to anyone via an automated system.
There are exceptions to all of this. For instance, anyone with whom a company has “a prior business relationship” can still send you emails and text messages; so can charities and political organizations.
For more information on the FCC Rules, check out this Guide.
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=JInHBiQoQGtWfo&b=cZUjifrScL2Bae2HrS3SWw
Of course, all of this does nothing to stop the crooks that
work outside the law and continue to send out their cell phone spaham regardless. So what can you do?
7 Things You Can Do to Halt Cell Phone Spaham
Nothing is going to be 100 percent effective but you can do a number of things which will severely restrict the chance of cell phone spaham getting through to you, either via emails or text message (and, of course, telemarketing calls). Here are 10 of them:
1. Get your cell phone (and landline) number on the Do Not Call Registry.
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=JInHBiQoQGtWfo&b=exmfqLWJv2vDmobRARBCxw
We also wrote about the DNC Registry in a recent report on telemarketing harassment.
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=JInHBiQoQGtWfo&b=unYcsjhjqXwkY.fFes05VA
2. Block text messages that originate on the Internet, rather than someone else’s phone.
Most cell phone spaham comes this way because it doesn’t cost the spahammer anything to send.
Your cell phone service provider will tell you how to do this and even how to set up exceptions that allow certain Internet messages to get through to your phone.
3. Contact your cell phone service provider and ask them to block specific numbers or Internet addresses where you believe your cell phone spaham is coming from.
4. Use a spaham filter for incoming email. Set these up either directly on your cell phone or, if you use an online email provider, via their website.
Alternatively get your mobile email by syncing with your desktop computer, which presumably does have a spaham filter installed.
We’re not aware of any service that is capable of automatically filtering text messages, though, no doubt, that’ll happen one day.
5. Beware of tactics that trick you into giving permission to cell phone spaham artists.
This could be a clause in the small print of a service or program you sign up for — even on your PC if you’re also asked to give your cell phone number.
Another sneaky trick uses free or cheap downloads – ringtones are a prime example.
Once you download, you’ve established a “prior business relationship” that allows the provider to legally send cell phone spaham text messages.
6. Never, never, never (is that enough?) respond to cell phone spaham. If you do, you’ll likely get an avalanche of the stuff and your details will be passed on to other spahammers.
7. Seek further support and guidance from your phone provider.
They’re as aware of this problem as anyone. According to David Morris, in his Sun Herald article, Verizon has launched at least 20 lawsuits against alleged wireless spahammers and
telemarketers.
Above all, it’s important to take prompt action against any cell phone spaham you receive, especially text messages you have to pay for.
You should ask your service provider to waive any such charges.
You can also report cell phone spaham by filing a complaint with the FCC. For an online complaint form, see
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=JInHBiQoQGtWfo&b=FRHo4WSPgnybvFopIQ1MCA.
As with all junk mail, cell phone spaham is unlikely to disappear anytime soon but you can escape most of it – and maybe have fewer night-time scares — by following our tips.
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It’s Friday….Start flapping your lips. Blog me.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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