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Group SMS: the cheapest texting club? For criminals?

"Most certainly the easiest and cheapest way of sending and receiving group messages available."

That's the judgement of an expert. Well, the opinion of a Texas professor of rhetoric, anyway: Clay Spinuzzi was sufficiently impressed with txtmob to plug it in his blog. It also impressed the reporter at Killer Startups

Actually, sending texts to a group is undoubtedly useful, but it's a trick which could attract disapproval from Authority, because of the potential for abuse.

Simply, it allows groups to stay in touch, even if none of them knows who the others are. Groups with a need to do this, sadly, include gangsters with anonymous mobiles, and as a result, a similar system in the UK was closed down recently.

The UK system not only offered group texts, but also would set up a group conference call. It was run offshore, making it possible for police to know the calls were being made, but impossible for them to find out who was being linked in. Drug dealer conventions became very easy to create.

Txtmob would (in theory) be more open to scrutiny, if the organisation were prepared to hand over all text records to police. Would the users be happy if they knew that?

Anyway, if you know a cheaper way of doing group txt then tell us.