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Text messaging spam on cellphones is a growing problem

By Nicole Perlroth

 |  New York Times  

  April 08, 2012

Once the scourge of email providers and the Postal Service, spammers have infiltrated the last refuge of spam-free communication: cellphones. In the United States, consumers received roughly 4.5 billion spam texts last year, more than double the 2.2 billion received in 2009, according to Ferris Research, a market research firm that tracks spam. Spread over 250 million text message-enabled phones, the problem is not as commonplace as email spam. But it is a growing menace, with the potential for significant damage.

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