Alarm bells

Two of these were spray painted on the ground outside school this morning on the pathways that the students walk.

Additionally, hung on the railings on our boundary, a pile of flexi/snappy rulers with the website address and an instruction to text a particular number with the following details
Who is (your name) from (your town) to get an 'answer'.
Apparently, whoever Jerry is, he knows everything.

Clearly targeting our students.

Alarm bells ring on so many fronts.

Firstly the statement that says "You must be 16 or over to use this service" - if that is the case, then why actively, and furtively, target a school where 80% of the students are under 16? That seems immoral at the very least, possibly illegal?

Secondly, the worry that this is some sort of scam to raise money, when a text costs £1.50 if you are on a particular service provider, £2.50 for most others.

Thirdly, that this is a scam to gather personal details about young people - you don't need me to articulate how that could possibly pan out.

I have done a bit of digging since I got home. Apparently this 'service' is running in a number of countries. The website is copyright protected to an organisation called "SIMISH".

There are a number of theories when I look on forums. None of them reassuring. Possibly completely incorrect information and assumptions.

One is that SIMISH is a merging of "SIM" and "PHISH" - phishing being the processed of scamming personal information....so what does that say?

Alternative SIM-ish is apparently some sort of developing language based on the SIMs games....so maybe its completely innocent and related to that?

Another is that the service is a front end, and that sitting behind it, is a data trawling system of some sort that trawls facebook information etc.

Apparently, according to one web source it is purely a new SMS phenomenon and purely for entertainment purposes.

Whatever it is, it makes me feel very uneasy that they are targeting children who are clearly below the age that they state is the minimum to use their service. So my alarm bells are still ringing just a little bit.

Does anyone know anything about it?