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13 August, 2007

The Joy of SMS Spam

Spam spammity spam spammity, spam spam spammee
Here comes another text from the HHIE
Spam spammity spam spammity, they take us for suckers
They spam us and spam us those spammity ... funsters

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27 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

bloody shit !

13 August, 2007 06:35  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I too have received these SMS messages. In a word, they are cryptic to say the least. Does anyone know what HHIE stands for? Or what this SMS is all about?

13 August, 2007 07:43  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

funster doesnt rhyme with sucker.
=P
or were you going with "open verse"

13 August, 2007 08:52  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

HHIE - HouseHold Income and Expenditure (its in the SMS).

This appears to be the most pointless SMS.

It doesn't seem to be a scam of some sort (unless there have been people who have been scammed by visiting surveyors). So what is the point of this SMS??

-RB

13 August, 2007 12:31  
Blogger PS said...

haha. amazing. I don't really recieve a large quantity of sms's from friends, so Im quite dissappointed when my text msg noise goes off on my phone only to find out that "HHIE" wants to tell me something..

what a letdown.

13 August, 2007 13:20  
Blogger SevenSummits said...

PS,
(not so serious response!)
Now this is the first time I heard of someone not getting a sufficient number of text msgs in the UAE :- )

Solution:
Get yourself to a nice public spot (don’t know which one might be the most appropriate right now, the young generation may help with tips) in Dubai and switch on your Bluetooth function.
Type in a sweet “female sounding” name and just wait five minutes …
Use the text editor to respond to all that incoming nonsense and make sure you dish out your mob number to everyone.

Conclusion:
After 2 weeks you will need to get a new mob number and will never want to see another incoming SMS on your phone

PS: I am letting every male and female scientist that is on my team go through this procedure in the UAE, just to kill all their illusions about “traditional culture” and “Islam” – works magic! :- ) Never seen anyone so persistent and desperate for contact with the opposite sex in my life!

Cheers :- )

14 August, 2007 01:25  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Total pain in the butt! I got six of them yesterday and goodness knows how many last week!

14 August, 2007 09:00  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

it really pisses me off that i keep getting these smses in ARABIC.
I didnt know its junk mail until i had an arabic colleague read it.
bloody hell.

14 August, 2007 11:38  
Blogger Orange Bronze said...

Same issue here, weekly receiving about 5 to 7 SMS from this survey thing, none of them to explain what to do next, or what are they doing now, or what were they doing before, it’s kind of: …Hey, we want to make look nice, so we are making look nice, while we try to make look nice, why don’t you just be nice and take a seat, we will do all the work… which is none of your business!!!
Where were they when the single bedroom flat in Abu-Dhabi went from 30000 to 90000?
Where were they when the bag of chips went from 0.50 to 4?
Where were they when the same brand of shoe went from 70 to 180?
Where were they when the car wash went from 20 to 30?
Where were they when the bread went from 1.50 to 3?
Where were they when the basic salary for a cashier went from 1000 to …. 1000???? Actually it’s still the same!!!
Can you tell what is happening?

14 August, 2007 12:54  
Blogger Karachiite said...

hmm yeah, it is beginning to irritate me now!!!
why doesnt etisalat do something???

14 August, 2007 14:17  
Blogger Meticulousness said...

At least they added some action into your lives lol

14 August, 2007 15:18  
Blogger al-republican said...

Oh God! And I thought I was the only one getting these SMSes!

It's just MADNESS!

14 August, 2007 19:48  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hmmmmm...I have a du mob too and surprisingly, haven't seen any spam on it yet. Is it just me or is it finally time to shake off shitty-salat and do the du?

15 August, 2007 06:45  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Cotton Eye Joe,
I am having an EtI**** mob as well and the only SPAMS I am receiving are from them, advertising their fantastic services that apparently work everywhere (maybe their definition of everywhere is extremely limited) in a persistent fashion! It is really, really annoying and I am getting them in both English and Arabic?! The worst thing is that all those functions always have some catch (e.g. you need a landline with them to enjoy their online service possibilities)

Last time I tried to take a peek at my mails via my local phone, it didn’t work – just like that, no f**** clue, since I didn’t change anything. Strolled to Eti**** main office in Dubai and saw this line of customers waiting and some female Emiratization disaster falling asleep behind the desk – I mean slower than slow motion – handling these very patient folks that even endured an unfriendly treat after finally being attended to. No chance for that! I passed the issue to a local friend that got it fixed instantly – what is the secret?

Could the SPAMs have something to do with the data collected for the so called “Census” and honest information givers are now victimized.

Al Rep, careful dude – if you reported being a bachelor you might fall into some devious scheme to get you hitched up ;P
You might be per se considered a threat to good morals and values :- )

15 August, 2007 14:25  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Getting this message often.

"The Expenditure and Income Survey will achieve economic and social development that aims at accomplishing the prosperity and progress of the society. "

No idea who is sending this.

15 August, 2007 14:48  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

.. and i had to pay to receive it during my vacation, called Etisalat, seems they dont know..jockers!!

16 August, 2007 11:35  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I feel that it isnt spam. Cos a spam of this magnitude and frequency surely would have got the folks at Etisalat wondering. It shouldn't have been hard for them to prevent this. What i do believe is that this is going on with the full knowledge and acknowledgment from Etisalat. Its a sign of the the things to come............TAXES!!!!!!

16 August, 2007 14:13  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

they spam me at early mornings.. 2am... 4am... and i get worried sick of who it culd be and get up tocheck the text.. its those b!@#$%#!@ again. they mentioned somethign about minimum wages... uhmm... im sure that would only be applied to national (no offence against them)... so uhm... why survey us. like theyre ever going to set a minimum wage for temporary employees. :-/

16 August, 2007 15:01  
Blogger ann said...

I haven't received any messages on my mobile (etisalat).

But funny you should mention this, because yesterday I went to draw money from an ATM (Bank of Abu Dhabi) and the greeting was this seemingly random message about the household income and expenditure survey.

My first thought was, so what the hell do you expect me to do about THAT? So there's a survey. So what?

Very War of the Worlds.

17 August, 2007 00:53  
Blogger secretdubai said...

I have made a little video tribute to the HHIE.

You can see it at the top of the left sidebar, or you can click here.

Enjoy it and do sing along!

17 August, 2007 20:56  
Blogger archer14 said...

fucking hilarious that vid!

17 August, 2007 23:52  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Cool VID lol.

18 August, 2007 09:11  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey, i had installed a software in my mobile called, BLACK LIST. it helps me to avoid this type of unwanted sms and calls. try on your mobile and get rid of these problems........sadiq.......

18 August, 2007 13:25  
Blogger Abu Dhabi Metro said...

I have been receiving the SPAMS too. I suspect our spending habits are being monitored!!!! Cos these SPAMS seem to appear right after a major transaction involving a credit/debit card!!!!! It is the only pattern I have observed so far.

19 August, 2007 16:28  
Blogger * said...

The only time if ever Etisalat responds is when some one complains and Gulf news gets all self righteous and does a EYE OPENING SHOCKER BREAKING(wind)NEWS story (GN fantasy-not mine)
Every now and then some twerp gets his knickers in a twist because they were dumped, and there goes another WEBSITE blocked for no reason.

20 August, 2007 21:05  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gulf Music

Texties are icummen in,
Lhude sing ‘It’s spam!’.
Service crap—Etisalat
—but I’d love their profits, damn!)
Sing: Ta’wam.

HHIE has access free,
A special’s out on ham.
A free massage, Your thing made large,
Damn you, sing: Ta’wam.

Ta’wam, Ta’wam, 'tis why I am, Ta’wam,
Living in Haraminam.

Sing Ta’wam, damm, sing Ta’wam.
Sing Ta’wam, sing Ta’wam, DAMM.


Dar Al Hemeer (with apologies to Ezra Pound)

24 August, 2007 19:53  
Blogger Ted said...

When I was in Dubai and Bahrain, I received a lot of spam SMS's. I hated it. My units would go down so fast.

www.pafundi.com
===================================
Number of Operations Iraq Freedom and Enduring Freedom casualties
as confirmed by U.S. Central Command: 4198

14 September, 2007 10:49  

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