At the end of January two major events took place in Costa Rica.
1) The iPhone craze finally took place when three primary cell phone operators (ICE Kölbi, Móvistar and Claro) started selling the iPhone 4S with numerous plans. At some of the major shopping centers customers bounced like pin balls comparing prices and plans – all three companies say sales have been [very] good in the last week.
2) And at end of January also, Sebastian Elizondo [who had sued Citibank’s Citi Tarjetas phone campaign promoting the bank’s credit cards for harassment] got a favorable court ruling. The judge ruled the calls interrupted Elizondo’s work, rest and family reunions. Elizondo originally asked for 6 million colonies ($11,800) in damages, but the judge awarded only 1 million colonies ($2,000).
The two events will soon have some Costa Ricans mumbling, “¿Qué Coño!” (English: WTF!).
Sebastian Elizondo case is what Costa Ricans will see more of, not the court case, but its aftermath; it will help open the flood gates of harassing calls, spam/malicious text messaging, and bogus pop-up ads, which will be distressing and disruptive. Costa Rican’s will now be targeted more than ever.
First, lets get down to reality, Costa Rica law does not forbid phone solicitations, unless they are insistent and exaggerated as Elizondo case was. Even if this was a landmark ruling, Costa Rican government does not have the resources or technology (as of yet) to provide some sort of consumer protection. So this leaves a new-found frontier for malicious callers and messages.
With the expansion of high tech, malicious callers with routers and redialing systems, harassing calls and spam messaging, numbers will jump 10 fold. So just because you think you have blocked one particular number, that same spammer may have 100s or even 1000s of numbers they can hammer you with.
Already Costa Ricans that have been using Skype are/have experiencing this. However, with Skype, one can block those bad calls and Skype is not run by ICE, Móvistar and Claro.
And all Costa Ricans know now ICE operates. 
Like in the U.S., where there are several anti-harassment technological solutions available, Costa Rica does not have those services that allow users to create lists of authorized contacts, and/or the cell phone companies do not have the resources to combat and block those harassment’s and spam/malicious text messaging. Let alone have resources to enforce those bad calls. And/or, once a questionable inbound call/number/message has been tagged (like in the US) the user can have that call be redirected to a recorded message that states the telephone number has been disconnected and/or a private answering service can be used to screen calls to assure the user the call is legit.
iPhones that have been unlocked and/or jail broke, are going to be the prime targets. Many will use the phone to download applications that are not of Mac. Again, once a bad application has been downloaded, the user may suddenly see these bogus popups that range from legit travel services, games, bogus dating websites, to hard core porn.
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