[tiffanyh]

I wish the Telco's did MORE filtering given the huge amount of SMS spam I get since Twilio has turned this channel into a positive ROI for spammers.

(1st biggest spam channel being email, which surprise/surprise - Twilio also dominates via SendGrid)

[aquark]

I have no knowledge of the ROI involved here, but would love to understand this: Twilio is 0.75c to send a text.

Is it possible for a spammer to generate >$75 per 10,000 people spammed? I've no idea were the SMS spams I've got link to (not about to find out) but they are so obviously spam.

We use SMS for communicating with users and would be happy to more a lot more per text to escape the 'positive ROI for spammers' territory.

I'd be happy to do that for important emails too!

[mmerlin]

Probably decent ROI which is why it keeps on happening!

They just need one person in each 10k spammed on average, to click the phishing url asking them to pay a fake bill and then charge them $328 instead of the $3.28 displayed o the page.

I received (and reported to their scam Dept) a phishing SMS yesterday pretending to be from Australia Post asking for $3.28 to release a delivery package I'm waiting for, which is most people in Australia nowadays with the current slowdown in mail delivery speed.

I am only guessing that the $3.28 phishing purchase would have attempted a $328 charge on my card... but that would be wildly profitable if the input costs per successful fraud were under $100...

[callalex]

How did you determine that these messages are through Twilio and not one of the dozens of cheap unscrupulous knockoffs? This is very easily identified, and you are are slinging serious accusations.