Apple

How do the SMS-sent 'free iPad giveaway' scams work? I've received these messages a few times and always ignored them, but I'm curious as to how the scammers get money from it.


Most of us who have received these SMSes know it usually goes something along the lines of this:


“Apple has selected your # to win a FREE iPad3. Click on cd.9c9.co/=XXXXXXXXXX(my phone number) and enter your winning code XXXXX(some code) to claim your FREE iPad3 within 24hrs.”


I did some further research and wound up at this video:




^
I know that the above video concerns web page-based scams, so phone scam versions probably differ. I'm not sure how different they would be, but if I am getting this right, they could probably still use your phone number to sign you up for some kind of 'premium service' anyway- and then charge you $10 per hour/day/month, racking up immense costs rapidly.


What I am concerned about is how simply entering one's phone number seems to qualify the form as a valid contract.

What if, say, my school, my employer, or my friends who already have my phone number go to one of these scam sites and sign me up for it? Seems questionable that the law would leave such a large loophole unchanged for so long.