An SMS message that promises Vodafone and TMN mobile phone owners 150 free text messages has proved to be a hoax. The message offers users the free messages, if they forward the text to five friends – who generally consider the offer to be genuine as it is received from people they know.
According to a Vodafone spokesperson, the message is “only a way of wasting money”. The spokesperson recommended that any customers who had doubts about received messages should telephone their network’s client helpline. He revealed that the message began circulating at the beginning of August on the Vodafone network, and rapidly spread to the TMN users.
According to an Optimus source, no complaints have so far been registered by their customers. Despite warnings from all major operators to ignore the message, the text is still spreading. However, none of the networks believe that the message was sent out in a bid to defraud money from customers, and point out that it is only them that benefit from the scam – every time the text is forwarded to five people, they charge the sender.
