Are free SMS sites really free?

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Ever come across sites where you can send SMS for free? Most likely you have, have you used it? Maybe. The lure of the word free works wonders on the human brain. So it’s quite likely that many users may make use of such free services.

Now why am i ranting about free SMS services. Well its nothing much but by using the free SMS services you are compromising the phone numbers of those you send the SMS to.

Yes its true, I have been a victim to this. I friend of mine used a free SMS service to message me just to test if that service works, and lo within a few days I began recieving marketing calls, even though my number was just a couple of weeks old.

Isn’t it questionalble that how these free SMS services are really free. How do they make money? How do they sustain thousands of users send FREE SMS?

Every thing has a catch and when you make use of a free SMS service to send a SMS to any number the SMS service will have an additional number in their database. Selling this database to marketing companies can make them a handsome amount.

Every FREE product has a catch because everyone has to make money somehow and running such sites can easily cost a lot of money, so there has to be a way they make money in return. Most Free SMS sites that I have seen do not disclose whether they store the numbers in their database or not. This is questionable as what do they do with the numbers then?

I am just passing on a information so that you may be more aware of such FREE services as there is always a catch even though the site in question may say otherwise.

I am just speaking of my own experiences, have any of your friends whom you have sent SMS to using such free services become a victim of such marketing calls? Do let me know in your comments.

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Pallab says

May 7, 2007

I often use CallwaveSMS to send SMS to dad’s mobile. No problem with spam so far (have been using it for a couple of months atleast). Only, the SMS itself has a footer added to it (letting people know that the sms was sent using callwave).
http://www.callwave.com/landing/widgets.asp

Reply to this comment

keith says

Hi Pallab,

Thanks for sharing the information, well its good to know that there are sites which do not sell info.

It’s just a bad experience I had with one such site.

Keith

Steve M Nash says

July 19, 2007

I’ve been using free sms sites for more than six years
and I’ve never had a problem with any of them. I have
heard of other people having problems with a couple of
sites (e.g. sms.ac and redalertz in the UK) but even
these sites let you unsubscribe eventually.

I do see what you mean, though, with regard to
what happens with the numbers being used

Steve

PS My fave free sms is either wadja.com (worldwide)
or Sheriff Ratings (UK).

Nudeln says

September 2, 2007

Send a free, fast and reliable SMS for free to the whole world without any hassling or registration - Text-one-Free.com

http://www.text-one-free.com

nyunyu says

December 1, 2007

It’s true Keith. Most free SMS provider out there has a catch WHICH they didn’t bother to disclose to the user. I have been tricked into joining a free sms service once and to my surprise, my credits was deducted for no apparent reason. Found out from the admin that the service apply a fees to recipient and they didn’t even bother to write it down in their TOS!

So, its been a couple years now since then. Now, the older I am, Im thinking of launching my own free sms service. I don’t like spam so I won’t bother to spam my users. Members will received a free credits upon signing up. Once they runs out of credits, there is several ways to obtain them. Referring friends, posting in forum, participate in my programs, even buy bulk credits..all that entitle them to receive additional credits.

So, my conclusion is..it is true some providers tricked you into something that you will regret such as spamming your mobile phone with useless junks and such..but the thing is, there is still someone (like me) who offers a decent services.

Anyway, great post like always Keith.