SMS link to porn threatens marriages in PE

31 May 2011 - 08:54 By Sapa
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Port Elizabeth residents received a strange SMS late on Thursday evening with a link to a pornographic website which left some people questioning their spouses' loyalty in their marriages'.

The questionable SMS, which included the name of the person receiving it, reads: "Hi (Name) you have 1 new message from Cindy in Richmond hill click here to view your message", the Dispatch Online reported on Tuesday.

One distraught woman, who did not want to be named, said her husband received the SMS on Thursday evening and because they live near Richmond Hill, assumed he knew the woman mentioned in the SMS.

"When I went to the website, I saw all these pornographic images and got very upset. We had an argument and it almost ruined our marriage.

"I cried myself to sleep because of this whole thing. I thought he was having an affair. I want to know who sent this SMS and why," she said.

More than 100 readers, mostly men, on The Herald's Facebook page also confirmed receiving the peculiar SMS.

Charles Vincent said: "Yeah, I got one. Very odd, was curious what spam I was getting, so I opened up a secure browsing session and it turns out to be a porn advertising page which wants to charge R9.99 a day for porn."

Institute for Security Studies senior researcher Annette Hobschle said cellphone-related crimes were on the rise and cellphone users needed to protect themselves by not clicking on web links when they received fraudulent SMSes or e-mails.

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