Is this a scam?

Hi all,

A couple of days ago I received an email offering me US$100 (apparently obligation free) to register and upload any application to a "developer network", which I ignored. Then today I get a "please respond" email from the same company.

To me it seems to have SCAM written all over it. I don't even want to click one of the links incase they record my email address as active and bombard me with spam. Im going to post the email here in its entirety for your opinion.

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Hey there,



SMS.ac is paying developers $100 US for uploading their first application to our site by September 15th. The entry with the most users by October 15th will win our $5,000 grand prize*



What qualifies for the $100? Almost anything! This can be a small application, a game as simple as pong or even a 30 second clip of images. I’ll even host it at no cost. Here are some examples and ideas.



So why would we do this? We are building a developer network and paying you to use it. You retain all the rights to your work and have the ability to post and remove anytime. There is no cost to do any of this whatsoever.



I am asking you to test me on my word. Post an application, and when you get paid at the end of September, return that favor and tell your friends about us.



To earn your $100 US, register, check out the SDK, and then submit. Call, IM, or email me, I’m here to help.



If you have flash, all you need to do is submit the url to your swf here.





Best Regards,



Peter Moormeier



SMS.ac

Developer Network Associate

255 G Street San Diego , California 92101 [ USA ]

 pmoormeier@...

 619-696-1376 x1301

 http://www.sms.ac

IM petemoormeier (Google Talk, Yahoo, MSN, and AIM)





*How valid is this? Terms and Conditions – http://www.sms.ac/pdf/partners/5K_incentive_tcs.pdf



Curious about who we are? - http://corporate.sms.ac/press/newsclippings.htm



Register & Submit: http://www.sms.ac/developer



SDK – http://www.sms.ac/sdk



Start-up Checklist – http://www.sms.ac/checklist



Forum posting with technical FAQ’s - http://dev.sms.ac/bbs/Default.aspx?g=posts&m=1385&#1385



This message was sent to you from SMS.ac, Inc., 255 G Street #723 , San Diego , CA , 92101 , USA and may include commercial advertisements and other solicitations. If you would prefer to no longer receive these types of communications from SMS.ac, please reply to this message with "remove" in the subject line. Please note that it may take up to ten days to process your request. CA002

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certainly looks like a scam to me.

Seems they're harvesting user's codes/works.

Just upload a pong and see if they paid you.

I got the same email and I didn't reply. The only place my email is posted is in my profile on here. I didn't reply to the email and kept getting other emails asking me to reply.

I put them on my blocked senders list so hopefully I won't get anymore.

I'm hoping that no one on here is harvesting peoples emails from their profiles.

It all depends on what the registration information is. Dont forget they are going to try and "Pay You Money", so if they ask for your PAy pal Account number to pay you then its probably not a con.

On the other hand, when they ask you for your account details, (After already getting you to give them address etc), then its a con

I get this email every day. I polietly told them to "Piss Off" and they did.

.ac = Ascension Island
http://www.ascension-island.gov.ac/ascension.htm
California eh?

I keep getting e-mails saying I've lost some a relative in some obscure Plane crash that occured 5 years ago and that I can claim 2~4 million dollars if I give out my bank details.

If I'd claimed all this money, by now I'd be richer than Bill Gates. Of course it's a scam :)

Short answer...YES

SMS.ac is known for doing scam...in fact the letters in the URL are the same as in scam. They had a scam going before with an SMS service that was a borderline (il)legal rip-off.

Generally Googling a piece of such a mail in quotation marks is a good idea. You'll likely find some site explaining it. Or just the words sms.ac and scam, will get you the info you need.

Ragnar

When someone offers you money for nothing its always a scam !!

It's not money for nothing, it's money for software. I know SMS.ac and I use their 'scam' sms service a bit. It's basically another myspace/meeting service, whereby each person has a blog page of sorts and you can send messages to people etc, SMS.ac make their money through on site advertisements, SMS relaying and their recent feature, which is basically making plugins for these blog sites. These plugins are usually a small area in a box that displays stuff. SMS.ac can afford to pay developers for their code, because the blog site owners are charged on a monthly basis to have it. I think it's a total rip but there's a LOT of people on that site loaded up with crappy extras.

Short answer... probably not. The others here obviously havn't even been to SMS.ac to check out what it's about... it's like calling a food disgusting when you havn't eaten it before. Of course, any business is capable of scamming, I don't represent SMS.ac, I just think these jokers should get their facts straight before replying to something like this. The fact that they actually stopped sending Tim emails when he asked already indicates they aren't instantly out to get you.

If the food stinks (much like the emails I'm getting) I'm not going to bother trying itam I!?

<shrugs> That's quite possibly your loss.

> That's quite possibly your loss.

If I want a service I will find it, not be found by someone else. Anyone who should try and advertise (pester me) themselves to me through a random e-mail deserves to be ignored.

Dead Toby...you haven't been charged extra for the service SMS.ax sms service. Guess you're lucky. People, including friends of mine, have been getting charges on their phone bills for the service. Seriously, Google SMS.ac and scam, you'll find lots and LOTS of info!

I wouldn't touch that company with a 10' pole.

Ragnar

If you choose to get SMS's sent to your phone, of course you will be charged. It's all in the terms of contract and the first few SMS's that are sent to you. After you tell them to bug off (individually for several different SMS services) they havn't contacted me once. Just because people don't read doesn't make it a scam.

No. But it is one of the things you rely on when your running a scam

I consider a scam to be something that doesn't deliver what it hypes. Or says one thing and does another. Kind of like EA. Ooh there's a zinger for the C&C forums...

Well thats not true tho is it. Hover were done in the UK for their "Free AirTicket" scam, even tho they did just what they would do.
When you rang them for the free ticket, if you were from the south of England they gave you a flight from Scotland, if from Northeast England they gave you a flight from Devon.
They did exactly what they said they were going to do. Yet they still got sued because they "INTENTION" was to scam

I don't understand the details, but it sounds like a case of justice gone wrong.