There seems to be a huge number of these spam SMS messages doing the rounds recently:
Free Msg; Our records indicate you may be entitled to £3750 for the accident you had. To apply free reply CLAIM to this message. To opt out text STOP.
These message come through if you are registered on
TPS or not. There is no identification as to who is sending them, and the number changes regularly (I have seen +447955957379, +447591260334, +447542067695, +44758137217, +447403811563, +447826688283, +447517528462). Sometimes the spam starts FREEMSG. Always the value seems to be £3750. It doesn't matter if you have had an accident or not.
If you are a Vodafone, O2 and Orange customer you can report the SMS spam to your provider: for
Orange and
O2 forward the message to
7726 (it spells
SPAM) or on Vodafone is is
87726 (
VSPAM). I have not been able to confirm, but
T-Mobile and
3 may also accept forwarded messages to
7726 as well. The carriers should be able to block the spammers if they get enough reports, and take legal action where necessary.
Update: 3's spam reporting number is
37726 (3SPAM). Thanks for the tip, Richard!
Replying STOP is probably not a good idea - the spammers may well use it to confirm that the mobile number is active. And replying CLAIM is probably an even worse idea since they are a bunch of low-life spammers who probably cannot be trusted.
