This morning I got the following text:

Congratulations! your cell # had won 1 Million and a brand new car in ABS-CBN dti-ncr permit# 3306 series of 2007. Call me now! Henry Lopez jr.

It's easy to see that the offer isn't legit. For one thing, any and all promos are done only with the express consent of the service operator. Messages involving contests always come from special senders, those designated with a name or code (3356 or ABS-CBN, instead of +639187728921).

And the DTI (the Department of Trade and Industry is responsible for regulating promos) gives out 5-digit permit numbers. In short, so many things with the SMS message I received are totally bogus. Someone's trying to pull my leg, but everything didn't add up.

The question remains: why would someone send such a text? A possibility is to verify if your number works, so that the sender can sell it to a spammer. Then the spammer will blast you more unsolicited texts. But here in SMS-crazy Philippines, it's very probable that the sender was just looking for new a text-mate (or a penpal, SMS-style). I am not kidding.

Just a Reminder: It goes without saying that you should never reply to such kinds of text messages, and don't call the sender. At the very least, you risk revealing your mobile number to a spammer.