Text Message Spam!
Marketing companies have found another way to inundate you with their products: spam text messages. Currently, more than 90% of all American cell phones are set up to receive text messages, and nearly 27 million people text on a regular basis. With the increasing popularity of wireless text messaging services, consumer marketing companies have stumbled onto a virtual goldmine of potential customers and ad space. The cost is expensive to advertising companies (10-35 cents each in some cases) and to consumers (text messages cost some consumers anywhere from 3 to 25 cents per message). However, marketing companies have found the use of text messaging to be very effective, with 15% of targeted consumers responding to the particular products. This number is nearly twice that which can be expected from direct mail advertising.