SMS Spam!

Is this a current thing or is it just me?

Lately I've been receiving too many spam-SMSes! I get an average of about two-three a day at least, and they range from services and promotions of all kinds to invitations to events I never heard of. And then there have been some which quite obviously are scams - saying I've won certain contests which I never took part in! And the latest I just received on Friday - offering easy money from a `licensed money lender'! (read: Ah Long!)

When I say spam, I have already excluded those which I know I've given out my mobile no. to - like some boutiques or my banks. But it really beats me when I receive sms-es from totally unknown sources.. some of them in Malay - and you know how good my Malay is. It's getting really annoying.. and on the other hand, I am wondering have I been too `promiscuous' in giving out my no.?

Besides SMSes, I have also been getting quite a lot of calls from tele-marketers! This I think has become a competitive `industry' and I'm sure others probably have the same complain as me.. well, I try always to be polite but firm and it has worked so far.

But back to those spam SMSes. It gets me thinking. Like e-mails (that's ANOTHER story altogether - yes, I get TONNES of junk mails in all my email accounts) which I know people do sell and buy contact lists, is there a chance that somebody - maybe even our mobile service provider - selling our numbers out to interested parties??

Hmm.. and if this is not possible, then do you think these `mysterious senders' just SMS out to numbers randomly - not knowing who the recipients are? Cos, honestly, some of the SMSes I receive make no sense at all.. they are totally irrelevant to me.

Just curious, I wonder anyone else having this problem too?