Yakov Shafranovich <research@solidmatrix.com> writes:
> There is no reason why cell phone companies around the world could
> not have developed a separate messaging framework NOT based on SMTP
> and email.
SMS (at least in GSM-based networks) differs a lot from email: limited
size, messages may be discarded etc. It's certainly not similar to
SMTP.
Furthermore, this is not a new problem, it's already quite common in
countries with more pervasive mobile networking infrastructure.
I think but not 100% sure, but in the US SMS messages between carriers go
over SMTP. However, many carriers operate email-to-SMS gateways which are
probably how the spam gets to the users.