Is this new? Well, new to me. Half from groups/cos./people who keep trying to call me.
I get the same thing on my phone!
Nope been around for years. Every phone has an email address, it’s <phone #> @ <provider (AT&T, Verizon, etc.)>. If you send an email, it comes in as a text. They used to assign an exchange to a mobile carrier; not all may have been assigned & some people may have changed carriers but that’s roughly 10,000 numbers that can be spammed from knowing one exchange assignment.
Not new at all. I think all the carriers have a number to which you can forward such spam; you’ll get a reply asking to tell them what the phone number was that it came from.
I imagine this does roughly nothing.