VIPSafeToday.com is an outfit that claims to want to give you a loan – or even a payday loan – and they are letting people know by spamming their cell phones with a text message that reads “You qualify to get up to 1200 DOLLARS instantly at WWW.VIPSAFETODAY.COM – It takes only mins for approval. ‘NO’ to unsubscribe”
This message is dastardly for several reasons – first, and most obvious, they are trying to scam you to get you to go to their website. A website, we must point out, that was only registered last week. Not only was it registered just last week, but it is registered in the Bahamas. Now, how much do you trust a site with these credentials?
Unfortunately, most people who receive the SMS spam will never know about the backstory – instead, they will see this on the VIPSafeToday.com site, and be lulled into a false sense of legitimacy of the site:
Now, why do we advise you to not text “no” to them to, supposedly, unsubscribe?
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Because outfits like this are not going to unsubscribe you. Instead, they are going to take note that there is a real live person at the end of that cell phone number, which just confirms how valuable your number is, which will allow them to sell your cell phone number for that much more money to their spamming, scamming colleagues.
Finally, even if they were semi-legitimate, what they are is a lead generation outfit – if you fill out an “application” they are going to share all of your contact information far and wide, and they are even up front about that:
VIPSafeToday.com’s loan matching service matches consumers with prospective lenders participating in VIPSafeToday.com’s direct network of payday loan lenders (“participating lenders”). To use the service, you must complete one or more online application forms that request specific information from you, including, but not limited to, your name, address, telephone number, email address, social security number, banking account information, and employment information… Once a consumer submits the application form(s) to VIPSafeToday.com, VIPSafeToday.com shares your information with one or more participating lenders.
Scary, eh? “VIPSafeToday” gets money for every qualified lead they turn over to the actual ‘lenders’.
So what can you do when you get text message (SMS) spam like this?
This: Learn how to report text message spam to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
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Damn, wish I read this before responding with “OFF”
This FundsLoanDirect.com has sent several spam messages about lending money to my cell phone.