“I just got a spam text from someone claiming to be Best Buy,” said my wife as she checked her phone.

“What’s the short code?,” I asked. “They won’t be spamming for much longer.”

“No, it’s from a 10-digit phone number,” she replied.

Ten digit phone numbers have the potential to royally screw-up the incredible effectiveness of SMS marketing. Hell, screw-up SMS in general. Most notably, services like Twilio, which enable the usage of 10-digit codes to be used to send text messages, are really doing everyone a disservice. 

Most of my readers are old enough to remember when email was a pure form of communication. Thanks to spam, those days are gone. Like having to produce stronger and stronger medicine to kill ever-adapting viruses, email providers fight a neverending war. This is largely due to email being free.

Text messaging doesn’t want to repeat email’s fate. That’s why short codes (usually 5-6 digit numbers) were created. By policing shortcodes in the manner they are today, the lives of those spamming phones has been very difficult and short-lived. And there’s usually a clear path to the evil-doers.

Sending mass messages - though not at the same rate as short codes - via 10-digit numbers, or regular phone numbers like the ones you see attached to regular people, was not the intent, but it’s happening. 

And it’s really, really bad.

Additionally, services like Twilio, who empower such activity, are simply feeding the beast. Although spamming in this fashion costs money, the 1-2 cent surcharge per message is likely worth the investment to spam the phones of innocent consumers. And when a spammers’ 10-digit number gets killed, they just get another one. 

Just like spamming emails addresses.

The mobile carriers won’t stand by while this happens. They make too much money from SMS to see it go the way of email. It’s no surprise there’s a lawsuit against Twilio and similar services.

Mobile carriers don’t mess around. Faces will be eaten.

The question is, Will the smackdown come in time? I, as someone who loves texting on both a personal and professional level, sure hope so.