Email spam is an everyday occurrence, but there's a new nuisance in town: text spam.
A viewer in Abbotsford wrote to say that he received a strange text message on his Telus cell phone claiming he was the recipient of a $2-million lotto prize – a lottery that he'd never entered.
Steele on Your Side contacted the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association to find out if this should concern our viewer.
Mark Choma said: "At first glance, it appears to be a text spam, similar to e-mail spam. Text spam is extremely rare in Canada and is normally not sent from one phone to another, but rather an internet-based system targeting cell numbers."
If you're a Telus customer you're advised to forward the unwanted spam text to 7726 with the word "spam" in the body and your bill will be adjusted with no questions asked.
The CWTA says reporting the spam text will also let your cell provider track down the offending party, and deal with them appropriately.
Telus told Steele on Your Side that the company detected the spam coming into its network, and its security and technical teams worked to block it Friday morning.
Spokesperson Shawn Hall said: "Spammers are always trying to find ways around security measures, but we have full time technical and security teams working to protect our customers so that very little gets through and it's shut down fast when it does."
Watch CTV News tonight for more on this story from Lynda Steele. We'll also have the feedback from our cross-border tire story earlier this week that struck a major nerve with tire dealers from across Canada.
