An amusing IQ test

A correspondent sends me an amusing story about phishing, cellphone spam, and being tricked into giving permission to be spammed (which I wrote about a couple years ago). I'll just quote it directly:

I was playing Scramble on facebook and one of the ads made it through my ad filter. Just for fun, I clicked on the "10 minute IQ test". 10 easy questions which took about 30 seconds total to answer. The 11th question was clearly the real IQ test. They ask you to enter your cell phone number to get your results by text message. The small print at the bottom says by submitting your cell number you are subscribing to their word club service, and they will charge you $20 a month (for AT&T users) to get a word sent to your phone once a week. I didn't submit my cell number.

I guess I passed the IQ test.

The Boston Globe and Engadget (among many others) have articles about AT&T settling lawsuits about such fraudulent charges and what you can do if you find one on your phone bill.

And if you're not an AT&T customer, don't be smug*, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile are facing similar lawsuits.