Authors of racial SMS face a $5,000 fine and 6 months in jail

As Australia continues to come to terms with the ugliness of Cronulla beach riots and the violent Maroubra reprisalls, The Australian. reports that police are interviewing a number of people over mobile phone text messages calling on people to rally on the Gold Coast on Sunday and start "cracking skulls".
The text messages are similar to those which inspired racial conflict in Sydney last Sunday.
Queensland Police Minister Judy Spence said officers were treating the SMS messages very seriously and had interviewed a number of people. "They have traced the source and the time and place that those SMS messages originated," she said.
The authors of the messages face a $5,000 fine and six months in jail.
Police believe the messages are a hoax but they have formulated a contingency plan and will be ready on Sunday.

'Gunfight' text message brings police to school

A student initiated a text message at a Tempe High School in Arizona, reporting a rumor or of a gunfire to break out on campus; "If you have friends at Marcos, tell them to be safe Friday. . . . A gunfight may break out, and some people may die.".
The message spread like wildfire from there. Police are not pursuing any criminal charges against the student, Masters said, though school officials say he faces 10 days of suspension to expulsion.

[via the Arizona Republic]

MSN SMS in India

MSN and Mobile 365 have forged strategic mobile alliances with five mobile operators in India to provide Hotmail and MSN Messenger to mobile phone users via SMS. “The MSN Messenger/Hotmail service via SMS is currently available to 70% of the Indian mobile user base. MSN and Mobile 365 expect to expand the service to cover 100% of the Indian mobile market very soon.”

SMS Mobile Payment System Launched

A new mobile payment system has been launched…TextPayMe allows people to send money with an SMS. It works like this: Someone signs up to the service, they then SMS “PAY (amount) (phone number)” to SMS@TextPayMe.com. They receive a phone call which will require them to enter a PIN (for security) and the money gets sent from a credit card or an account that has been preloaded. The receiver (who doesn’t have to be signed up) can get the money deposited into a bank account or have a check mailed. The initial deposits, withdrawals and transactions are all free — which leads me to assume a fee based structure is part of the business plan, but I haven’t seen it. At the moment I’m not sure how useful this is, since it seems to be an alternative to PayPal. True, you don’t need to be at your computer to make a payment, but most purchases that require that kind of payment are on the web. However, if the system can be linked to mobile content it may find a ready market — especially if it works out cheaper than the cut operators take for supplying a payment system…

(via Textually)