Thanks lizard.boy for the tip on this story; The following information has been collected from a number of sources and I myself have contacted the company requesting additional information/comments.  You know i'm not afraid to go there.

Internet Media Company SMS.ac says it offers free SMS messaging...however, upon investigation from several other websites, we have learned that nothing on SMS.ac is free.  You see, SMS.ac is currently defrauding customers and operating in a criminalistic way.  Michael Pousti is the owner of SMS.ac

You see, when you send an SMS via SMS.ac, the receipient must pay $0.55.  Also, SMS.ac will send you 3 advertisements every 3 days, costing you $1.00 an Advertisement.  Thats $3.00 every 3 days.

Think SMS.ac is a clean company still?  Think again.  Court Documents dating back to June 29th, 1990 have been discovered that accuse SMS.ac's founder of commiting fraud.  National Scholastic Resources is the company that Michael Pousti was operating to defraud users at the time.

Michael Pousti also uses the name Michael Reller to commit his fraud.  He works with a partner, Ramin Niakiani, or at least he did on his previous account.

We have learned that SMS.ac has the habit of making false database changes in order to bill users multiple times.  Under rare circumstances (i.e. a good enough threat from a customer) a customer is refunded.

SMS.ac is currently being operated by Michael Pousti, Brandie Williams and Greg Wilfahrt.  SMS.ac has been known to use frivilous lawsuits against sites like our own and others claiming that they reveal trade secrets.

The management of SMS.ac is:
Michael Pousti
E.G. Brower
Greg Wilfahrt
Amanda Schaffer
Brandie Williams
Chris McKibbin
Brianne Pedersen
Ken Smith
Todd Sabo
Dennis Shresta
David Vandertie
Tim Carter
Dave Hanson

"Amy", an alias we used to protect her identity, states:
"I used to work at sms.ac Chris, and all the crap sms pulls is true and you know it. You run the "seeding" department and you know that each person in your department is required to send 1000 fake messages a day because the amount of messages that actual members send is next to nothing. Anyone who wants to get out of the scam send STOP to 188 1051.

And Chris I will be more than happy to publish my full name and email address if you give me your word that sms.ac will not file suit against me. But you won't do that will you? Because you will sue us, we all signed non disclosure agreements and now we are divulging company secrets. So you force us all to speak out anonymously." on one of our sources websites responding to a comment posted by "Chris".

An SMS.ac Employee responded to some complaints by saying "There has been some mention about "seeding" and how sms.ac is using employees using ghost accounts to spam club messages to premiere accounts. This was indeed done FOUR YEARS ago when the clubs first were offered as to increase interest and site activity. It has not been done since then".

There is MUCH more on this topic, i'll continue updating you as I learn more...I'd like to point out that i'm not afraid, SMS.ac can ask you to remove this post from the forums but they cannot stop me from speaking out against there dirty actions.  Come and get me, SMS.ac!

Sources: Messenger Plus! Zone, RipOff Report, United States Postal Service, Bad Business Bureau, UnleadedOnline

dammit!....i get jokes from there...and yeah..i do get advertisements every 3 days there jokes suck to!!!

I'd like to note that if you feel you want to publish this on your website too, Go ahead.  Hide your identity if you dont want to receive there legal threats though...To be honest, the letter they send is completely empty, dont even worry about it.  They cannot do crap to you because there is so much counter-tracktion and you are not revealing there trade secrets .

personal rule of thumb.
if a contact send you an invitation:
remember it.
delete it

if a close friend send you the same invitation. it may be legit.

if 8 of your contats send you the invitation 3 times, its bogus.

My bro uses it regularly
I was gonna start to use it Ya and he and invitations and all .... i dont think he gets ads Ill need to investigate

The danish police closed down the danish part of sms.ac after a danish tv-station reported it

all my friends send these emails but i just ignore them cause they are complete crap. i always get differant ones, bebo is spreading around as well in the same kinda way

I never use these stupid companies, I just send texts using o2.co.uk, my dad's phone or my phone .

quote:

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Originally posted by traxor
I never use these stupid companies, I just send texts using o2.co.uk, my dad's phone or my phone .

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I've had an account on SMS.ac for ages, and I've never lost money to them. I don't get adverts from them, and when I send texts using it, the recipient isn't charged.

Ive just tended to ignore emails from them, not really ever knowing what it was......

quote:

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Originally posted by -rafy-
Ive just tended to ignore emails from them, not really ever knowing what it was......

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dont they get in your msn address book and spread it to your contacts like that too?

This happened to me and my mate. Took £2 off my credit Very annoying.

When i received my first invite i read what it was all about on their site...i found several things onthere wich made me decide not to join, sorry to all who invited me.


Some quotes from http://sms.ac/HomePage/termsandcons.aspx:

SMS.ac reserves the right to change the nature of this relationship at any time without notice to you.

Please note that your profile information will be publicly available to other users.

To promote community, we may facilitate interaction and communication between members. Additionally, if there appear to be common interests between you and other users (according to your profile information), we may send email or SMS messages that will introduce you to others or them to you. For this purpose, we may include your greeting and other profile information. For this community-related Service that is provided directly to your mobile phone, you will be charged.

YOU UNDERSTAND THAT SMS.AC MAY MODIFY SERVICES AT ANY TIME AND THAT SMS.AC SPECIFICALLY RESERVES THE RIGHT FROM TIME TO TIME TO ALTER THE NUMBER OF FREE MESSAGES AND OTHER FREE SERVICES OR ELIMINATE ANY OR ALL FREE OFFERINGS ENTIRELY AT ITS SOLE DISCRETION, WITH OR WITHOUT NOTIFICATION.

You acknowledge that SMS.ac doesn't pre-screen Content, but that SMS.ac and its designees shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to refuse or move any Content that is available via the Service. Without limitation, SMS.ac shall have the right to remove any Content that violates this Agreement or is otherwise objectionable. <<< how do they know if they don't read your messages?

Your use of this service and interaction with other users is at your own risk. Your profile can be viewed by other users. You may receive messages from SMS.ac or other users at any time. View pricing per country at Mobile Commands Help http://www.sms.ac/MobilecommandHelp/help.asp.

Exactly, they have very dodgy agreement terms.  Thanks for that research Sunshine .

quote:

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Originally posted by SMS.ac TOS

To promote community, we may facilitate interaction and communication between members. Additionally, if there appear to be common interests between you and other users (according to your profile information), we may send email or SMS messages that will introduce you to others or them to you. For this purpose, we may include your greeting and other profile information. For this community-related Service that is provided directly to your mobile phone, you will be charged.

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quote:

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Originally posted by SMS.ac TOS

You acknowledge that SMS.ac doesn't pre-screen Content, but that SMS.ac and its designees shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to refuse or move any Content that is available via the Service. Without limitation, SMS.ac shall have the right to remove any Content that violates this Agreement or is otherwise objectionable.

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I've reposted this at my blog, with all credits given. Plus ive added my own little bit too. You can see it here.

Here is what i wrote...

When you sign up, there are some Terms and Conditions that you agree too. Firstly, the Checkbox that you select comes before the actual T&Cs, making it hard to see, and the Terms and Conditions appear in a very very small box (screenshot). In that very small box, there is a 4,411 word agreement that you can only read 4 lines at a time. Then, at the very bottom of the agreement, there is the following line...

"You may receive messages from SMS.ac or other users at any time. View pricing per country at..."

That means that if you send a message to someone, that person without choice gets charged a certain amount (screenshot).

quote:

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Originally posted by saralk
"You may receive messages from SMS.ac or other users at any time. View pricing per country at..."

That means that if you send a message to someone, that person without choice gets charged a certain amount (screenshot).

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All free services are crap, in my sincere  opinion , nothing is free, theres always a catch...the free ipods and tvs too, a guy from a magazine (cant remember the name) researched  and the called a guy from the testimonials of that pages and the guy told him he was paid $$50$$ for taking a pic of him with his ipod.
If you btw recieved a free something please tell me, im curious.
edit: sorry for posting in the old thread, i was so md i didnt even notice...

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