Dutch police get the message across

The Dutch police force is using spam to crack down on mobile phone theft in Amsterdam, in the hope that SMS (short message service) 'bombs' will deter thieves.

Once a person reports a stolen phone to the police, the force will add the number to a mailing list and then send an SMS message to the phone every three minutes. The aim is to put thieves off selling the handset and other people off buying it. The message reads: "This handset was nicked, buying or selling it is a crime. The police."

According to the Amsterdam force, mobile phone theft is rapidly getting out of hand. There were 340 thefts reported in January alone, up from 268 the year before. The police are treating the crime as a serious offence and so far this year have arrested 150 handset thieves.

Criminals who think they can get away with it by changing the Sim card can think again. In this case, the police use the handset's international Mobile Equipment Identity number, which cannot be changed, to track down the number of the Sim currently in the phone. Once this number is discovered, the spamming begins.

But Holland is not the only country using SMS spam creatively. In the UK, The Guardian launched the country's first ever text message poetry competition.

Poems can either be submitted in plain English, SMS shorthand or a combination of the two. Seven poems will be selected as finalists with all entrants voting on the best via their mobile phones.

On 3 May the winner will receive £1000. Entries can be sent via SMS to 07753 828610 and a daily selection of entries are shown on guardian.co.uk/mobilepoems.