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Protect Your Cell Phone From Spam
Dejected @Work writes "If wireless technology ever kicks off you may be getting spam phone calls - "hot deals 10 feet away". If so you will have to use techniques like RMI, BrightMail, and latest e-mail filters to keep phone spam free. This article examines some of these tools and programming concepts."
Most of the major Cell providers have a web->SMS gateway, so that you can send a cell messaage via your browser.
This is nice, and I use them.
But what's to stop some low-live scum sucker from using these to send "Enlarge your penis!" messages? I've wondered since there's no authentication at all. It would be (was) trivial to write a script that auto-submits information to a cell number.
(SPAMMERS - YOU HAVE BEEN INFECTED WITH A MIND RAY. YOU DO NOT REMEMBER ANYTHING YOU'VE READ FOR THE PAST 24 HOURS)
-Ben
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
I'm already getting SPAM SMSs from Nokia for example. They are advertising by sending me SMS messages once in a while. Can't say I like that.
much like spam faxes, unsolicited calls to cell phones will cost the end user a *lot* of money. Its something that the consumers will never stand for.
Currently i know that if you recieve a spam fax you can send a copy to:
Consumer Information Bureau
Federal Communications Commision
445 Twelfth St. SW
Washington DC 20554
if you ask that appropriate legal action be taken, it works! Not only that, you can sue the people who send the faxes (not for a ton, but the maximum amt is well over the cost of printer cartridges and paper)
Since this seems like a fairly equivalent situation, i.e the cost of the spam will definitely have a fair sized impact on your own bill (unlike standard telephone telemarkating and junk mail)... i would be surprised if things didn't work out the same way once complaints start flowing
I'm currently stationed in Okinawa and all my Japanese friends are currently frustrated by the ammount of spam they receive.
Also, not sure if you have seen the new Sprint PCS phone from Sanyo, but it is getting close to the tech out here and I beleive will allow emails of any size to come through.
I know I've sent some sizeable ones (500 - 700 characters to provide directions) to my friends and they received them just fine. The also can receive pics in emails.
The flip side of this is the unbeleivable convenience it is to get written driving directions sent to you. Not to mention when the US finally catches up to Japan and releases $200 phones that also have a digital camera in them.
my two cents...
I've dirtied my hands writing poetry, for the sake of seduction; that is, for the sake of a useful cause. --Dostoevsky
Unlike email, sending an SMS costs money, so how do the spammers do it?
Well, there are a bunch of networks across Europe which all allow SMS to travel between them for free - they have mutual exchange agreements. There are a lot of these networks: all the operators and a lot of small players which provide email2sms and commercial SMS type services. The spammers pay once-off to use these commercial services and then pump out millions of SMSs.
So what happens is that Vodaphone for example then cancels its contract with that little commercial SMS company and the company changes it's services/rates/business. Meanwhile the spammer moves on to another small commercial SMS provider.
It's just the same cycle as regularly switching ISPs, spamming successfully before getting blocked.
Here in Finland, SMS spam was also made opt-in. Nowadays, advertisers send you SMS messages asking whether you want to receive advertising material for [insert product name here], which is just as bad.
Ummm... This can't happen in the United States of America. The junk fax law prohibits sending unsolicited advertisements to mobile phones: "It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States ... to make any call [other than emergency or opt-in] using any automatic telephone dialing system ... to any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call" (47 USC 227).
The same section of law prohibits sending spam to a fax machine, which is defined so as to include any computer that has a modem.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Have you ever wondered why you don't get calls from telephone solicitors on your cell phone? People in Europe certainly do. Why are Americans exempt?
The answer is a simple but important legal decision: it's illegal for solicitors to bother you if YOU must pay for the call. In Europe, incoming cell calls are free, but in the U.S. you pay a per-minute charge for the privilege of answering calls.
Text messaging spam will be illegal only if it costs the victim money. Unfortunately, providers are moving to flat monthly rates for text messaging services. I expect this will become a burgeoning spam market.
Sincerely,
Brock Arnason