Nope, no $60 reward for forwarding SMS chain letter

Happen to get a recent text message promising a $60 credit on your next cell phone bill—as soon as you forward the message to 10 of your buddies? Do yourself (and the rest of us) a favor: Just delete it.

Snopes.com (an ever-reliable—and endlessly entertaining—catalog of Internet hoaxes, urban legends, and miscellaneous mischief) spotted the chain message (along with several variants) earlier this month, and it posted a healthy collection of them online. Here's an example:

I just received a text message that says

"CINGULAR (THE NEW AT@T)-F2DE-MSG. Attention! All Cingular customers send this message to ten people and Cingular will credit your account $60!"

Is this for real????

Snopes has no fewer than seven examples of the spam message pinned in its virtual glass box for your inspection; they're all more or less the same, usually just interchanging carrier names (including Sprint, T-Mobile, Alltel, and Verizon Wireless). One of the messages proudly proclaims "I contacted sprint and they let me know this was not TRUE!!"—probably hoping that you'll pass along the warning along to your friends.

Of course, there is no such "forward this message!" offer, and there never was—although as Snopes points out, this particular SMS spam message has been floating around since at least May 2008. So please, if you get the text, just delete it—don't junk up the SMSphere by forwarding it to the rest of us, even as a warning.

Get any other "something for nothing" message via SMS or e-mail? Check out Snopes' collection of phony offers—along with some legit ones—and look for a match; chances are, you'll find one.

Related:
$60 Cell Phone Credit [Snopes.com]