If you’re looking for the ultimate example of human stupidity, you need look no further than the ads for downloads to mobile phones. The idea of letting someone you have no hope of tracing make charges against your phone simply doesn’t appeal to me.
It’s bad enough when the product is arguably useful (some people really like games, customised ringtones, wallpaper etc.) but some of the shit they advertise amazes me. I had thought that the worst was when they wanted to charge you for really bad impersonations of The Simpsons (which I’m sure breaches copyright law). Then they had SMS chat where you pay a fortune to send text messages to someone who’s apparently really hot and wants to go out with you (yeah, right).
Then I found a new low point:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aA_E1rrhx8
My girlfriend knows I hate this ad. She also has a wicked sense of humour. So every time it comes on she makes a big show of texting our names to the number to wind me up.
It works every time.
Angry 365 Days a Year 
I agree. Those “compatability” things are ridiculously stupid.
Although I, being young and naive, find it hard to believe that anyone would take them seriously. What would happen?
“Sorry, sweetie. I know you want to get married, but my phone said we’re not compatible.”
Also, do you have to send your full name to those people? Because that doesn’t sound like the greatest idea to me, sending my full name to some stranger. They could be planning some conspiracy.
I think their biggest conspiracy is to take all your money.
I’m still rolling over this one…Thanks for the public service. I’ll pass it along to my son who believes he’s winning a Hummer, vacation home, and the like. I’ll have him put the money he saves into something useful, like schooling so he’d stop being a moron when he hears of these scams.
Hey angry guy — Gave you a shout out on my blog today. Wanted to shoot you an email to give you a heads up, but I couldn’t find your contact info here on this blog. Give me your phone number and I’ll text my URL to you. 😉
lisa: if I can educate, I’m happy
funkybrownchick: for you I’ll do it 😉 Actually lots of people say they want to email me so I’m going to put some contact details on my “Why am I doing this?” link.
You know this would be really funny if it wasn’t true! My favourite one is when I win $ 1 million over and over again 🙂
Yes, I’m sure all their prize giving is completely legitimate and people really win those amounts.
It’s preying on kids if you ask me. Not nice.
I saw one the other day…phone this number and you will definitely win one of these prizes:
Cheque for £20,000
Sony widescreen TV
Digital camera
New kitchen or £5,000 in cash
£250 in cash
Calls cost £1.50 per minute, calls last seven minutes.
Have a guess which prize you’d win if you called…it has to be the digital camera. Worth £7. Plus £10 shipping costs.
Bloody scam artists.
My god I hate those text thingys. I wish I could get money from people I text. If i sent a message I get five bucks. Score for me.
Every comment smilingchaos leaves is $5, plus an additional 25 dollar signup fee. With another $5 per week additional charges. GST not included
paul: you summed it up – scam artists!
smilingchaos: yeah, they found a new way to part idiots from their money.