Fake Haiti Fund Raiser Spam Being Circulated Through BlackBerry Messenger [News]

By Mauricio

Just last week I mentioned the problem of BlackBerry Messenger being used as a way of sending spam and hoaxes and it looks like someone else has decided to start their own. An unknown individual (or individuals) started sending the following false message through BBM:

Because of what has transpired in Haiti recently, Blackberry has decided to help out and give 35 cents for the cause when you pass this message along to your friends on BBM.

I got this message and immediately dismissed it as spam, telling the person who sent it to me that they shouldn’t send it to anyone else since it is most likely fake. It looks like I was right because a RIM spokesperson said that RIM “is donating funds as well as BlackBerry devices to the relief effort, but … RIM does not charge a transactional fee for BBM messages and did not originate the message”. The spokesperson also said “the message originated from a legitimately confused user (who misunderstood some other unrelated news about charitable organizations raising funds through the texting medium), or perhaps the information morphed after passing through a string of people,” which I believe could be the case considering the amounts of donating systems set up by carriers recently.

Regardless of this BBM message’s legitimacy, please be aware of spam and hoaxes that being sent through BBM and always question where the sender got the message. If you’re a T-Mobile customer and would like to give to the American Red Cross to help out with the situation in Haiti, you can read more on how to do so here.

via msnbc