Killing Unwanted Text Messages from Yahoo! Alerts?

I would... by SaturnTim · 2002-12-18 09:15 · Score: 4, Informative

Send them a bill. They are using your airtime, with something you didn't ask for. If they don't want to pay the bill, they will find a way to stop it.

--T

--
http://www.theMediaBunker.com

Re:I would... by BrK · 2002-12-18 09:19 · Score: 5, Insightful

I'm sure Yahoo! would happily ignore your bill. If you were lucky it *might* get posted on the bulletin board, next to the cafeteria menu for the week, as humor.

Unless the cellphone number has been given out to a lot of people, I would just change it. It's the path of least resistance...

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-This sig intentionally left blank
Re:I would... by ch-chuck · 2002-12-18 09:26 · Score: 1

If they don't want to pay the bill

they, um, won't pay the bill - often using the 'just try and collect' tactic.

--
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Re:I would... by shepd · 2002-12-18 09:32 · Score: 3, Informative

>I'm sure Yahoo! would happily ignore your bill.

And this gives you cause to sue them in small claims court.

If the amount of messaging exceeds $50-$100, it could be worth suing them in small claims. They probably won't even show up, and a decision will be reached (probably in your favour) in absentia.

Of course, IANAL, so don't follow that as legal advice. :-)

--
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
Re:I would... by IdleTime · 2002-12-18 09:41 · Score: 3, Insightful

Why don't you just call Yahoo, use the phone man! That's what they are for. Then traverse the hierarcy until you find the one responsible, but start at the top.

Just call them each time you get a message, sooner or later they'll get tired.

--
If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
Re:I would... by mr.+methane · 2002-12-18 09:45 · Score: 5, Insightful

I had a similar problem with an on-line brokerage; I gave them my pager address so they could send trade confirmations, and ONLY trade confirmations. A few months later, I started getting pager spams at 2am, 3am, etc. from them. I called their customer service people, told them to stop, and they promised it would.

When it started up a month or so later, I sent a registered letter to the CEO, calmly explaining that the first time is a mistake, the second time is harassment. I also filed complaints with the FCC, the NASD, the US attorney general, and their own attorney general.

I got a polite, written response from a representative of the company explaining why the error occured, and also outlining the steps they were taking to make sure that it could not occur again.

So... Be calm, be forgiving, and be factual. And then scream bloody murder.
Re:I would... by BrK · 2002-12-18 09:45 · Score: 2

>And this gives you cause to sue them in small claims court.

Really? You can send anyone of your chossing a bill and then sue them just 'cause they didn't pay? How do you know you're even sending it to the proper accounts payable department?

Granted that Yahoo! may in fact be causing this guys' cell phone bill to creap up $0.02 at a time (at least thats what text messages cost to my vzw phone), but I don't believe Yahoo is liable.

They *should* however make it a fsck of a lot easier to get rid of these text messages.

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-This sig intentionally left blank
Re:I would... by Blkdeath · 2002-12-18 09:57 · Score: 3, Insightful

Just call them each time you get a message, sooner or later they'll get tired.

Uhm, yes and no. Speaking as someone who's recently had to deal with a Very Large Company who'd over-billed me (to the tune of $200 over four months), I can tell you that yes, perseverance will pay off. Not, however, because they get 'tired', but because eventually you'll speak to someone with reason, you'll speak calmly and plainly about the situation and they'll get you fixed up. It took me over a month of phone calls; level 1, 2, and 3 before I finally got a supervisor in the billing department who was kind enough to help me out. Now that I've received the cheque, I'll have to remember to write an appropriate letter of thanks. (My sister works in a call centre so I know they hear about things like that. So if someone goes the extra mile or even helps you when others won't - let them know! The guy might get a bonus or something out of it, and it'll certainly brighten their day.)

--
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Re:I would... by mijok · 2002-12-18 10:02 · Score: 1

Do you get a bill for that!? That's insane - please tell me that I'm wrong when I recall reading before on slashdot that in the US you get charged for calls you receive, not only ones you make. Please tell me I'm wrong. In Europe it's only the caller that pays unless you make a collect call (ie. the operator asks the recipient whether they wish to get the call and pay for it). And as far as phone spam is concerned - what is the legal status? It certainly easier to trace the sender so making an opt out possibility legally mandatory should be trivial. In Finland - and presumably the rest of the EU too - it will soon be (or maybe it already is, it was in the news a couple of months ago) illegal for operators (and other senders of text message ads) to send ads to people that haven't opted in - and that's why I had no problem with opting in to useful ones since I know my number won't be abused.

--
Karma. Moderation. Is my .sig good now?
Re:I would... by sql*kitten · 2002-12-18 10:04 · Score: 2

Send them a bill. They are using your airtime, with something you didn't ask for. If they don't want to pay the bill, they will find a way to stop it

Hah, post to Slashdot, we'll flatten their server for you!!

Oh, wait...
Re:I would... by Amazing+Quantum+Man · 2002-12-18 10:14 · Score: 2

Uh, dude? It's Yahoo!. I doubt that they'd even notice a slashdotting.

--
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
Re:I would... by avdp · 2002-12-18 10:14 · Score: 2

You're wrong. On cell phone incoming calls always get deducted from your airtime (usually you sign up for a plan that give a certain amount of airtime a month).

Of course, we're talking about SMS messages. Some carrier charge you a very small fee (i.e. $0.02) for each message, with possibly an allotment of free messages.
Re:I would... by sjames · 2002-12-18 10:19 · Score: 2

Really? You can send anyone of your chossing a bill and then sue them just 'cause they didn't pay? How do you know you're even sending it to the proper accounts payable department?

Yes, you can. You will need to make a best effort to determine the appropriate address for their AP dept. Note that if you sue, you'd best be sure you had a legitimate reason for the billing, or they can sue you in return.

In this case, there is a legitimate reason.
Re:I would... by minaguib · 2002-12-18 10:24 · Score: 1

In Canada, one of the largest cell phone providers, Fido (http://www.fido.ca) charges for all SMS messages, including incoming.
Re:I would... by B.D.Mills · 2002-12-18 10:24 · Score: 5, Insightful

I'm sure Yahoo! would happily ignore your bill

IANAL. Check with a lawyer, but you'll probably find the following to be correct.

Legally, they CAN'T ignore such a bill that you choose to send them.

Under US law, it is ILLEGAL for Yahoo! to send unsolicited advertising messages to a mobile device, such as a pager and the like. You can bill them up to $500 for EACH MESSAGE. So if he sends them a bill, legally they MUST PAY.

Send them a message via certified snail mail, return receipt requested, explaining that the owner of the phone number has changed, and demanding immediate removal of your phone's details from the database. Tell them that failure to comply by a certain date will result in them paying penalties of up to $500 per message sent to your mobile device.

And if the messages don't stop, send them a bill for $350 for each message, with a warning that failure to pay by a certain will result in court action being taken against Yahoo! and $500 being payable for each message.

--

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke
Re:I would... by andrewski · 2002-12-18 10:54 · Score: 1

Wow! That's brilliant advice! Start at the top! It's doubtful that you could call anyone at the 'top' of ANY large company, as those people have legions of folks under their employ whose only job is to handle the small details for the people at the top.

The problem here is that the various state and federal governments are very relaxed towards this kind of behavior, and likely the only reason this national do-not-call list is being considered is because one of them (read rich white dudes) got fed up.
Re:I would... by Zugot · 2002-12-18 10:56 · Score: 1

Yeah, cause they have an army of FreeBSD machines.
No, it is because of Yahoo!'s army of Akamai servers.

--
-- Bryan
Re:I would... by po_boy · 2002-12-18 11:33 · Score: 2

Under US law, it is ILLEGAL for Yahoo! to send unsolicited advertising messages to a mobile device, such as a pager and the like. You can bill them up to $500 for EACH MESSAGE.

Really, there's a federal law in place for that? Is that part of the same law that deals with fax spams or something? I've been looking for something like this for a while, but assumed that I would have to find a state statute for it. I'd love any information you can provide on this as my cursory searches have turned up nothing so far. Thanks.
Re:I would... by sqlrob · 2002-12-18 11:44 · Score: 3, Informative

Try here, for info about the TCPA. Basically, anything that reverse charges is illegal to send unsolicited messages to.
Re:I would... by Muggins+the+Mad · 2002-12-18 13:24 · Score: 2

> You get charged for incoming calls on all the major carriers, as far as I know.

All the major carriers in the *US*, perhaps. There'd be an outrage if they tried that here (NZ). I believe they don't charge for incoming in Europe or Australia either.

You really have to pay for incoming messages? In a country where spamming is rampant?

Gosh.

- MugginsM
Re:I would... by shepd · 2002-12-18 14:55 · Score: 1

>You'd piss away miore time than your bill is worth even trying to get them to acknowledge you.

I agree it would take time. That's the idea, they don't want to deal with piss-ant cases.

The process seems more than clear enough to me, and if they don't acknowledge you, then you have even more case to sue (you can sue the city court for refusing to apply the law). The process should be:

- Write the courthouse in Yahoo!'s state.
- Tell them you want to sue over a cross state unpaid bill.
- They write you, telling you the filing fee is $80.
- You send them the filing fee, they send you a mound of papers to fill out.
- You happily spend an hour or two reading and filling out forms.
- You return the forms to the court.
- You wait 6-12 months for a court date letter to appear. If you are lucky it is in your state. If not, it isn't. It can go either way.

There you go. But don't take my word for it, take the words of someone better informed about suing people out of state.

However, according to this lawyer, you may need to elevate it past small claims level to get anywhere if it is out of state. Again, just keep tallying up the bills until they reach the point where it becomes worth your while to sue in civil court ($1000 maybe?). I do not believe the federal court will be prohibitively priced assuming you represent yourself (it's such a cut and dried case, why shouldn't you?). And now if Yahoo! doesn't get their ass down to court, the judge will be _seriously_ pissed off.

You can find out much more information about suing in small claims court here.

I hope this helps.

--
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
Re:I would... by Just+Jim · 2002-12-18 15:30 · Score: 1

Just a note. According to the TCPA, if they *knowingly* send messages to your cell-phone against your wishes, triple damages apply. IOW, $1500 per message.
Re:I would... by jcr · 2002-12-18 21:25 · Score: 2

Really? You can send anyone of your chossing a bill and then sue them just 'cause they didn't pay? How do you know you're even sending it to the proper accounts payable department?

Of course you can. You can sue somebody for breathing your air, and you will get a hearing. Now, if you go to court with a frivolous case, the court can smack you but good for wasting the court's time, and/or the defense can move for dismissal.

-jcr

--
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Re:I would... by efatapo · 2002-12-19 01:36 · Score: 1

Excuse my cynicism, but oh great. You're going to send a letter about the *one* guy at the call center who could help you. And then he gets promoted. And now there's no*one* left at the call center competent enough to do something about my call! ;)
Re:I would... by Phibian · 2002-12-19 02:39 · Score: 1

In Canada, Telus (formerly ClearNet) charges Cdn$0.10 per incoming message (although apparently messages sent from other mobile phones as opposed to from email are now free). It used to be Cdn$0.50 per message, with no freebies. So it's going in the right direction, but it is still excessively expensive (IMO).

Personally, though, I'm not sure how useful it is - the only messages I ever received via text messaging were unsolicited.
Re:I would... by glesga_kiss · 2002-12-19 03:14 · Score: 2

may in fact be causing this guys' cell phone bill to creap up $0.02 at a time (at least thats what text messages cost to my vzw phone)
you pay to receive a text message? That's a bit lame, is it standard where you are? Over here, the sender pays, end of story.
Mind you, it would make it harder to resolve a case like this over here, without a provable monetry loss.
Re:I would... by BrK · 2002-12-19 03:22 · Score: 2

Yes, I for instance pay $0.02 per text message. For some amount of money, I can buy some pre-defined amount of messages, and for (I think) like $20.00US or something I can receive (and send) unlimited texts.

If the *sender* had to pay, then of course this entire thread would never have had a need to exist :) Same thing for email, "SPAM" would be a problem if the sender actually incurred some fee for sending.

One thing to note, though, is that if the *sender* had to pay, you probably wouldn't have these free services like the Yahoo and MSN alerts. Maybe that's not a Bad Thing after all, but it's worth pondering....

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-This sig intentionally left blank
Re:I would... by glesga_kiss · 2002-12-19 03:51 · Score: 2

One thing to note, though, is that if the *sender* had to pay, you probably wouldn't have these free services like the Yahoo and MSN alerts.
Most of Europe is sender-pay, and we do get these services. They are add-supported though, I'm not sure if you have to agree to getting adds messaged to you, but the web pages have the usual adverts on them.
There are also some free web->SMS gateways out there, so essentially you get 100% free messaging if you have a net connection. Subject to the old "reasonable use" clause of course...
It's the way it should be. Compared to a mobile phone call, the amount of data sent is tiny. To pay more per minute for text than phone is absurd, but that's the way the telcos like it!
My costs are 10p (~15c) per text message and 2p per min (~3c) for voice.
Re:I would... by dfries · 2002-12-19 05:28 · Score: 1

The problem with taking a hard ball approach is when they have bigger lawyers and decide to actually sue you. Even when their case is friviouls. Or maybe it is just insurance companies that sue when you stop to avoid an accident and their clients behind you doesn't. That is if you haven't contacted a lawyer and they tell you to go for it.

Contact your telco by dorward · 2002-12-18 09:16 · Score: 5, Insightful

I suggest that instead of continuing to try to get Yahoo to stop sending the messages you instead contact your telephone company and ask them to block the messages before they get to your phone.

As they are making money off you and Yahoo isn't, you are more likely to get a useful response.

Re:Contact your telco by TurdTapper · 2002-12-18 09:37 · Score: 1, Interesting

I've tried this with my land-line phone and it isn't that easy to get them to do it. I'm sure that a wireless company, since they charge by the airtime, would want to help you out on this more than SBC Ameritech would.

We kept getting calls from a telemarketing company in NYC where no one was ever on the other end of the line when we answered. When I asked Ameritech if they would block this particular phone number they said that could only do it if we reported it to the police as harassment and they got a court order to block it.

One more reason to drop my land-line altogether and stop shelling money to those people.

--
A man with a gun is called a citizen. A man without a gun is called a subject.
Re:Contact your telco by bbonnn · 2002-12-18 09:38 · Score: 4, Informative

Actually, this is not an entirely uncommon issue with telcos ... theoretically, people can send unwanted Spam to SMS email gateways. For example, if your number is 650-555-1212 and your carrier is Cingular, you automatically have an SMS email address, which means that people can send you SMS messages from their email accounts. In Cingular's case, your SMS email address is 6505551212@XXXXXXX.XXXcingular.com. So, all a spammer has to do is send email messages to 6501111111@XXXXXXX.XXXcingular.com, 6501111112@XXXXXXX.XXXcingular.com, etc. Bingo, you get unwanted SMS on your phone

Most carriers' response? Cancel SMS on your wireless account. Granted, you won't be able then to receive ANY SMS messages, but that's not their problem. Frustrating? Yes. Welcome to the world of wireless telco.
Re:Contact your telco by rcw-work · 2002-12-18 09:38 · Score: 2

A couple years ago I called Airtouch to request exactly that - something was sending an (apparently) automated numeric page to one of the new pagers we got.
Airtouch's policy was that they couldn't stop it and they required a court order to tell me where they were coming from.
We ended up changing the pager's number.
Re:Contact your telco by gmack · 2002-12-18 09:49 · Score: 2

I tried that once with Rogers-ATT after I quit my job (disagreement over an alliance with Ralsky) but forgot to remove myself from the paging system before I left. I felt pretty stupid when something broke a month later and they had no one who knew how to either fix it or change the number on the paging system.

Roger's told me there was no possible way to block just one sender and I would have to either change my number or disable text messaging entirely.
Re:Contact your telco by arnie_apesacrappin · 2002-12-18 10:35 · Score: 2

I actually worked for a paging company one time, and we routinely had issues with this. Most of the time it was a fax machine that would get a hold of a pager number and keep retrying every five minutes until the sender realized that they had dialed the wrong number or the fax machine just gave up. The simplest solution was to change the pager number. Of course, that was easy for us as we were part of the paging company.
In the case of pagers, the technology being used to accept incoming calls is generally very old. Some of the production equipment when I worked there was older than me. AFAIK, there was no way to block an incoming phone call on those units.
And for the email gateway to the pagers, I wouldn't expect that your paging carrier could block incoming emails from a specific address either. The application that did the translation for us barely ran. The guy who wrote it seriously thought that if his code compiled without any errors that it was fine to move into production.

--
Still, with a plan, you only get the best you can imagine. I'd always hoped for something better than that. -CP
Re:Contact your telco by Anonymous Coward · 2002-12-18 10:37 · Score: 1, Informative

At least Verizon has an online filter thing where you can set up text message filters. Block based on domains/subdomains, telephone numbers, etc.
Re:Contact your telco by jchristopher · 2002-12-19 18:12 · Score: 1

Yup, it would be nice if the carriers cared, but they don't. Cingular Wireless, for example, does not care if you are getting junk SMS. They will just tell you to cancel SMS, take it or leave it.
In fact, Cingular (or someone posing as Cingular) recently spammed their customers in California with a message indicating their intent to send marketing messages in the future, and giving the user the opportunity to "opt-out" ahead of time.
Since they get paid every time an SMS is sent (Either on a per SMS basis or as part of a monthly package) they could care less about stopping it.

Oops... by gUmbi · 2002-12-18 09:17 · Score: 5, Funny

I didn't think of that...I feel sorry for the owners of my last 3 cellphone numbers.

Re:Oops... by AdmiralTaco · 2002-12-18 09:52 · Score: 1

This also opens up possibilities for payback. You know someone's cell phone number so you load it into your Yahoo! account and sign up for stuff.

This would be especially bad for those that have Nextels and pay $0.10 a piece for every text message they get.

Of course, now that I've said something it's going to happen to me...*sigh*
Re:Oops... by random735 · 2002-12-18 10:52 · Score: 1

as I recall they have some sort of confirmation process... I think. (been a while since i set mine up). If they don't, they certainly need one... something like they send a specific message to your phone, and you have to confirm that you got the message somewhere so they know it's your phone.

Talk to your carrier. by glrotate · 2002-12-18 09:17 · Score: 2

Get them to block the originating #, or get them to change yours.

Why don't the messages stop? by HaeMaker · 2002-12-18 09:17 · Score: 5, Informative

Because these alerts are like a mailing list subscription and the phone number is like an email address. The problem is phone numbers are reused, where email addresses, generally, are not.

Yahoo or MSN do not receive notification when someone cancels their phone account.

Re:Why don't the messages stop? by rsteele19 · 2002-12-18 09:54 · Score: 2

You would *think* email addresses would not be reused, wouldn't you? But when I signed up with a new ISP and set up my email account, I found I already had quite a bit of email, and none of it intended for me. After doing a little detective work I managed to track down the new email address of the rightful recipient and forwarded her messages to her until they stopped some months later.

The moral of the story? If you're cancelling an email account and there's any chance someone might be emailing you something you wouldn't want someone else to recieve, make sure you get them your new email address!

--
This sig is umop apisdn.
Re:Why don't the messages stop? by Anonymous Coward · 2002-12-18 10:09 · Score: 1, Informative

Same here-- I got my six year old daughter an e-mail account at our local ISP. It turns out that the e-mail address she chose had been used by someone else before. In our case it was really bad-- not just misdirected mail but lots of really sick stuff that someone her age (nor MY age for that matter!) needs to see... lots of stuff like rape sex fetishes, etc.

Pretty sad...
Re:Why don't the messages stop? by John+Hasler · 2002-12-18 10:25 · Score: 1, Flamebait

> Yahoo or MSN do not receive notification when
> someone cancels their phone account.

Tough shit. They send the stuff: it's up to them to figure out when to stop. If they can't they can damn well not send it at all.

--
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Re:Why don't the messages stop? by skuzzlebutt · 2002-12-18 10:51 · Score: 1

I also found out (guess how) that some providers (coughcoughverizoncough) don't associate the phone number with the SMS preferences account (username & password from website)...luckily I found a bored tech support agent on a sunday afternoon who researched it for four hours before she found the problem and fixed it.

--
My debut novel AMITY now available: http://jeremydbrooks.c
Re:Why don't the messages stop? by jasonkohles · 2002-12-18 11:22 · Score: 1

The problem isn't the number being reused, the problem is Yahoo's broken system. I signed up my own pager long ago to see if the information they sent out was in any way useful, discovered it wasn't, and then found there is no way to get rid of them once they start. I unchecked all the subscription boxes, tried deleting the mobile device, and finally deleted my account entirely. Six months later I still get pages from the system every day.
Re:Why don't the messages stop? by green1 · 2002-12-18 12:40 · Score: 2, Insightful

>> Yahoo or MSN do not receive notification when someone cancels their phone account.

yes and no... nobody tells yahhoo or MSN that the account is cancelled, but at the same time I know that most telcos (or at least the one I work for) have a policy that phone numbers must remain disconnected for a minimum of so many months before the next person gets that number (in our case I beleive it is 6 months)

so while they won't get a message asking to cancel it, they should get a bunch of bounce messages if they are paging every day as was indicated by the orriginal poster. and I would think it would be reasonable (note I didn't say expected... I know better) to remove an address that has bounced every day for 6 months or more.
Re:Why don't the messages stop? by WoodstockJeff · 2002-12-18 19:12 · Score: 3, Interesting

However, YAHOO and MSN do get notifications when email addresses become invalid. MSN, so far, has been good about removing them.
YAHOO, on the other hand, has consistantly bounced attempts to notify them that they are using invalid addresses for spam when sent to their "errors to" address, and so they continue to send spam to addresses that no longer exist. In fact, they continue to send spam to addresses that never existed in the first place!
I suspect the only way to stop it is going to involve the legal system and court-ordered cash settlements... Or, an article in the Wall Street Journal about them, just before some important SEC filing!
Re:Why don't the messages stop? by theguru · 2002-12-19 04:57 · Score: 1

That's interesting. Yahoo Groups on the other hand are very good about removing email addresses of members who bounce messages. I'm constantly re-activating memberships for members who use free (small inbox) email, or went on vacation and had their inbox fill up.

Hmm, not sure you've done this... by prostoalex · 2002-12-18 09:18 · Score: 5, Informative

Have you tried this?

Yahoo! Mobile Devices, log in under your Yahoo account and select "Add a New Device", then add your phone number, or e-mail for the cell phone, depending on what your operator supports and then specifically do not choose any alerts.

Re:Hmm, not sure you've done this... by edrugtrader · 2002-12-18 09:28 · Score: 1

that is what he did for MSN... it wouldn't work for yahoo though... probably returning a "this number is already registered to someone else" error message.

--
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
Re:Hmm, not sure you've done this... by HelbaSluice · 2002-12-18 09:31 · Score: 5, Informative

Not that simple. I had this same problem, and no matter what I tried, no "Yahoo Mobile Device" I created could ever grok that there was ALREADY a record in a database somewhere instructing them to SMSpam that same number on a daily basis.

I successfully signed up for and then cancelled THE SAME MESSAGE SERVICE for my phone--and for the couple days it was active, successfully received two messages. My phone happily collapsed those into one message, with a "removing duplicates" warning.

Whatever else is going on, Yahoo does NOT require that a "Mobile Device" have a unique phone number. Or at least, didn't at the time I was trying this.

Fortunately, the volume of messages I was getting was nowhere near my monthly limit. I got pretty quick at ignoring them. A few months later they started getting inconsistent--skipping one or two days on occasion. Eventually they just petered out, and I haven't had one now in over a year.
Re:Hmm, not sure you've done this... by miltimj · 2002-12-18 09:56 · Score: 1

This probably won't work, because they don't check for duplicate email addresses. That is, they don't use the email address as a primary key.

--
"Truth is not decided by majority vote" consensus gentium -- Norman Geisler

Preferences by vondo · 2002-12-18 09:18 · Score: 5, Interesting

Why aren't the text message preferences deleted when the cancellation notices comes thru?

Just a guess, but probably what is registered is an e-mail address like 3215551212@sprintpcs.com which is how e-mail can find its way to SprintPCS phones. The service you sign up for may have no relation to your cell provider, so cancelling one doesn't cancel the other and then your phone number (and hence e-mail address) can be recycled.

Re:Preferences by Guppy06 · 2002-12-18 09:36 · Score: 3, Informative

"but probably what is registered is an e-mail address like 3215551212@sprintpcs.com which is how e-mail can find its way to SprintPCS phones."

Am I the only Sprint PCS customer that doesn't have an e-mail address like this? Mine has the same user name as my standard e-mail account and the phone number is only useful if you use Sprint PCS's web form to send a text message.
Re:Preferences by vondo · 2002-12-18 09:42 · Score: 2

I think I have both (but don't pay for the service, so don't get the mail).

It may depend on how long you've been a customer. I think at some point they introduced the alphabetical names. I've been a subscriber for about 3 years, I guess.

Try the numeric one and see if it works.
Re:Preferences by rizzo420 · 2002-12-18 09:48 · Score: 1

look deeper into sprint... i'm sure there's something there. i use verizon wireless and there's a form to send text messages from the webpage using the phone number, there's sending them from the phone using the phone number, and then there's an explanation of doing it using email. the email address would be 2035551212@some.long.complicated.domain.verizonwir eless.com. so unless with sprint, you get your regular email on your phone, you can also email your phone's email address which would be the phone number thing as described above. most wireless customers don't even realize they have this kind of capability, but it's there. there is also a limit to the number of characters you can send to the phone.

--
please me, have no regrets.
Re:Preferences by PeteEMT · 2002-12-18 10:44 · Score: 1

Actually it's not a long complicated domain anymore. It's vtext.com now. You can also sign up for a alphanumeric email address to use in addition to your phone number.

--
Pete
Re:Preferences by dknj · 2002-12-18 15:53 · Score: 2

sign up for wireless web (if you don't have pcs vision) and fire an email to yournumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com. tada instant paging. pcs vision, however, gives you whatever username you'd like

-dk

Phone spam by coinreturn · 2002-12-18 09:18 · Score: 1

Just another reason NOT to get a fancy phone with internet abilities - Phone Spam.

Re:Phone spam by Jucius+Maximus · 2002-12-18 09:21 · Score: 3, Informative

"Just another reason NOT to get a fancy phone with internet abilities - Phone Spam."
Sneakemail and other aliasing services can be used to avoid this as well. Instead of sending the mail to 5551234567@sms.phoneprovider.com you can send it to a sneakemail address which will bounce it to your SMS. This way you can kill off the sneakemail address if necessary and stop the spam easily.
Re:Phone spam by Doc+Hopper · 2002-12-18 10:00 · Score: 2

That's what I set up at work. We have those same type of numbers -- 5555551212@mobile.att.net -- so we just set up email aliases on our mail server, so when someone sends a mail to "page-soandso@domain.com" it goes to their pager. Very useful, and if a phone ever starts getting spam, we just change the email address or remove it. Makes it so we can recycle our phones to new people easily.

You can even do this easily at home using any standard mailer and a mail alias file. Just point a domain at your home DSL link (or whatever you use), and put the entry into your "aliases" file. Even if you use Fetchmail to retrieve mail from a remote account, you can make it so that those remote accounts can eventually go to a pager address. Fun fun fun :)

--
Matthew P. Barnson
I learn what I think when I read what I write
Re:Phone spam by Blkdeath · 2002-12-18 10:03 · Score: 2

Just another reason NOT to get a fancy phone with internet abilities - Phone Spam.

Nahh.. I've got a nice new phone from Telus which supports 1X, SMS, two-way text messaging and all the other cruft; but I didn't get it because of that, I got it despite all of those features. I couldn't care less about surfing the WWW or reading e-mail on this small screen (small for a computing device, large for a cellphone). I got the phone because it was inexpensive and came with four months' of free airtime and an additional $100 credit towards my bill for a very low rate ($129.99 plus tax) and free activation. When I activated the phone, I simply told the girl not to add any web/text features - period. If I do decide later down the road that I want (some of) them I'll have the option. I like having choice, and eliminating all the phones that are web, 1X, or text-message ready severely reduces my choice (to almost nothing; most new digital phones nowadays are capable of all these features)

--
BD Phone Home!
Shameless plug. Like you weren't expecting it.
Re:Phone spam by cornflux · 2002-12-18 10:08 · Score: 1

This will not help with services that require you give the phone number (206-555-1212) and the wireless carrier (yourwireless co) and then go about determining the email address (2065551212@sms.email.yourwireless.co.com) on their own.

Well if it's with Sprint by inteller · 2002-12-18 09:19 · Score: 1

I believe that yahoo alerts don't cost anything. Except for the annoyance.

Re:Well if it's with Sprint by tomhudson · 2002-12-18 09:28 · Score: 2

But other providers charge $$$, either on an per-message basis, or for every message over a certain number per month.
But that's not the point here. Even if you don't pay extra to receive spam, you still don't want it. Since he doesn't want these alerts, to him, they're spam.
5 years ago, it was computer email spam. Today it's cell-phone spam. Who knows what it'll be in 5 years, or what the costs will be? Especially since some spammers are trying blocks of cell phone numbers.
Re:Well if it's with Sprint by exhilaration · 2002-12-18 09:32 · Score: 2

Exactly, Voicestream's policy was that you could send/receive 10 SMS msgs per month, and an additional $2.95/month allowed you send/receive 200 per month.
If you go over your quota, the cost was either 10 cents or 25 cents per message.
I don't think that T-Mobile altered this policy.
Re:Well if it's with Sprint by archeopterix · 2002-12-18 09:34 · Score: 2, Funny

5 years ago, it was computer email spam. Today it's cell-phone spam. Who knows what it'll be in 5 years, or what the costs will be?
Spammers spamming my internet-enabled fridge with free samples of spam?
Re:Well if it's with Sprint by SirCrashALot · 2002-12-18 09:46 · Score: 1

Verizon charges 2 cents for each incoming message. If you have a plan, it uses one of you messages which could be saved for the more expensive (10 cents) outgoing ones.

A *somewhat* related question... by Micah · 2002-12-18 09:19 · Score: 5, Insightful

Ok, not about cell phone text, but about getting Yahoo to stop things...

I have an *ancient* Geocities home page, that was set up before Yahoo acquired them. I am "yoderm" on Yahoo and was on Geocities before the acquisition. Unfortunately, the GC home page is not associated with my Yahoo account. I now have no way of logging into the thing, and really want it deleted.

I've sent two messages through their "help" center, but no response. I've tried every support@ and help@ type e-mail I could think of for yahoo.com, geocities.com, and yahoo-inc.com. They all either bounce or get an automated reply that says "go to the help center".

Conclusion: Yahoo goes WAY out of their way to avoid dealing with human "customers".

Re:A *somewhat* related question... by Anonymous Coward · 2002-12-18 09:26 · Score: 2, Informative

An automated daily/hourly/minutely/secondly email gently reminding them to remove you seems in order. I know the time I used this technique, I was successful at getting their attention, which is all I wanted.
Re:A *somewhat* related question... by Archfeld · 2002-12-18 09:26 · Score: 2

I had/have the same problem and to my knowledge there is NO WAY to get them to delete it. The only way I found was to upgrade to the new service, the free one that is and then delete my pages. This still left the broken link redirect but at least my content was gone...YAHOO blows all around.

--
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Re:A *somewhat* related question... by John_Booty · 2002-12-18 09:30 · Score: 2

I have an *ancient* Geocities home page, that was set up before Yahoo acquired them. I am "yoderm" on Yahoo and was on Geocities before the acquisition. Unfortunately, the GC home page is not associated with my Yahoo account. I now have no way of logging into the thing, and really want it deleted.

That sucks. Not that you should have to jump through such hoops, but what if you try making the site a Terms Of Service violation? You could hammer it with wget to constantly exceed the bandwidth allocation, or maybe falsely say there's some sort of, I dunno... Nazi propaganda on there? I dunno, I don't know exactly what it takes to get a site kicked off of Geocities. Good luck. :P

--

OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
Re:A *somewhat* related question... by secolactico · 2002-12-18 09:30 · Score: 2, Informative

I had exactly the same problem, only I wasn't trying to delete my page. In the end, I just bought a domain and hosted my page somewhere else. I *was* going to host my domain with Yahoo, up that point.

There's just no way to contact Yahoo customer service.

--
No sig
Re:A *somewhat* related question... by rworne · 2002-12-18 09:47 · Score: 2

Send a DMCA cease and desist letter against yourself and the provider. That ought to get them to stop rather quickly. There are plenty of examples on the net to purloin for your needs.

--
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
Re:A *somewhat* related question... by rmohr02 · 2002-12-18 10:03 · Score: 2

Well, from what I've seen, a site can exceed it's allocated bandwidth for each hour, but then it's refreshed each hour.
Re:A *somewhat* related question... by wirelessbuzzers · 2002-12-18 10:45 · Score: 1

Conclusion: Yahoo goes WAY out of their way to avoid dealing with human "customers".

Are you paying them? If not, you're not a customer.

--
I hereby place the above post in the public domain.
Re:A *somewhat* related question... by BitHive · 2002-12-18 11:04 · Score: 2

I have had GeoCities sites pulled within hours by claiming copyright violation. My old site, detonate.net, had many original movie parodies which became popular enough that people would mirror them on GeoCities and AngelFire. Dig up the appropriate email address, and send a polite but firm message that you do not appreciate your copyrighted material being reproduced (hosted) without your permission. Hopefully there's enough evidence to prove your ownership of the material, but chances are they won't check too thoroughly if the account has been dormant for long enough.
Re:A *somewhat* related question... by bigbigbison · 2002-12-18 11:33 · Score: 1

I have the sma eproblem. I had a geocities site with teh old street style adress. back in the day i was stupid enough to put my email adress on it. I forgot all about it untill last year when it occured to me that that email was getting an incredible amount of spam. I finally got through to yahoo and they basiclly said after months of telling me to try this and this and this, "Oh since you didn't change it back then you can't get into it at all now."
so its still up there. i still get tons of spam at that email address.
i see that others have said write their copywrite person. anyone have teh adress handy to post here? or a link to it?

--
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
Re:A *somewhat* related question... by Micah · 2002-12-18 13:39 · Score: 2

wow. It recognized that user ID at least. Didn't know that, thanks. Unfortunately, the FTP password (and I haven't use it in years but I'm 98% sure it's correct) didn't work. :(
Re:A *somewhat* related question... by Artifex · 2002-12-18 14:07 · Score: 2

I have an *ancient* Geocities home page, that was set up before Yahoo acquired them. I am "yoderm" on Yahoo and was on Geocities before the acquisition. Unfortunately, the GC home page is not associated with my Yahoo account. I now have no way of logging into the thing, and really want it deleted.

When my Geocities account was subsumed by Yahoo!, they added a .geo to the end of my name, because someone else had the same account name already on that service.

Try logging in as yoderm.geo and your old password, etc. They were supposed to have sent you mail with that info, though, so if it doesn't work they changed it to something else. If they still had a search by "avenues" you could have checked the new name out that way, but, well, I think Yahoo! would be just as happy if all the Geocities pages disappeared.

--
Get off my launchpad!
Re:A *somewhat* related question... by goid · 2002-12-18 15:43 · Score: 1

Even if you are a paying Yahoo customer, it's impossible to talk to them.

They absolutely suck.

--
"Star Wars Moral Number 17: Teddy bears are dangerous in herds."
Re:A *somewhat* related question... by bigbigbison · 2002-12-18 21:03 · Score: 1

IN my emails to yahoo, they basically finally ended up saying that yeas, that .geo thing used to work, but not now. its too late to change it. its there forever.
unless that letter to the copyright person thing works.

--
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
Re:A *somewhat* related question... by Da_Big_G · 2002-12-19 07:56 · Score: 1

You get what you pay for. When dealing with these companies where most things are FREE you can't expect to get top-notch customer service. It costs a lot of money to staff a support center (even if the center is in Canada/India/Jamaica).

Get a real ISP and you'll get a real response.
Re:A *somewhat* related question... by Micah · 2002-12-19 09:48 · Score: 2

well NOW I do "have my own ISP" ... my own colocated server in fact. But a long time ago I put up a page that I simply want to take down now.

And it's not like answering that will take a lot of their time. Sheesh. Should be do-able in 5 minutes.

Sue - Its the American Way by csritchie · 2002-12-18 09:20 · Score: 5, Funny

Go through your local fast food drive-thru, order a coffee and make sure you spill it on yourself as you are reading your messages. I'm pretty sure the warning labels on the coffee do not yet include: Warning! Do not drink while reading text messages.

RE: Why aren't the ~ preferences deleted... by JaffoGLIDE · 2002-12-18 09:20 · Score: 1

Likely, the service is setup to send email to the phone? I am not familiar with your service...I use AT&T, and I get phone-spammed all the time. With AT&T you just send email to phone#@attws.com (or something). Yahoo may not know that the account changed...not that this excuses their terrible sounding customer interface for this stuff. I agree with other statements, you should go to your service provider and get them to filter it, if possible.

I have to remember that excuse by typical+geek · 2002-12-18 09:21 · Score: 4, Funny

honest honey, all the porno text ads are from the previous owner of the cell phone.

Re:I have to remember that excuse by Anonvmous+Coward · 2002-12-18 09:36 · Score: 5, Funny

"honest honey, all the porno text ads are from the previous owner of the cell phone."

"Then explain why you paid $400 for a phone with a color screen."
Re:I have to remember that excuse by damiam · 2002-12-18 09:58 · Score: 1

Why the fuck would anyone sign up for porno text ads?

--
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
Re:I have to remember that excuse by Anonvmous+Coward · 2002-12-18 10:24 · Score: 2

"honest honey, all the porno text ads are from the previous owner of the cell phone."

"Then explain why you paid $400 for a phone with a color screen."

Off-topic my ass.

I guess funny posts are automatically off topic unless you start it with "In Soviet Russia..."
Re:I have to remember that excuse by T3kno · 2002-12-18 11:27 · Score: 2

Umm...
Try this!

--
(B) + (D) + (B) + (D) = (K) + (&)

It's a dupe !! by rixster · 2002-12-18 09:21 · Score: 1, Offtopic

Sorry - force of habit

--
Two wrongs may not make a right, but three ....

Yahoo support sucks :( by Flamesplash · 2002-12-18 09:22 · Score: 2

I've found that Yahoo's support for free services really really sucks. I can see why, but I'm starting to doubt any support even exists for these services. Good luck, though I think you are screwed.

--
"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson

Re:Yahoo support sucks :( by Gomer+Pyle · 2002-12-18 09:38 · Score: 1

I've been there. They've always ignored any question from me that they didn't have a cookie cutter answer for.

Cancellation Notice??? by kevlar · 2002-12-18 09:22 · Score: 3, Insightful

Why aren't the text message preferences deleted when the cancellation notices comes thru?

Yahoo essentially knows nothing about the phone number. All it knows is that there is a number (or more abstractly, an email address) through which it should send its junk. They don't know who/what/where otherwise. They know nothing about who currently owns which phone #.

Re:Cancellation Notice??? by BrK · 2002-12-18 09:42 · Score: 2

True 'dat

Also keep in mind that most text messages are limited to an insanely small amount of characters, typ. 120-300. You think they want to waste "precious marketing space" with such frivolities as unsubscribe info?

--
-This sig intentionally left blank

Putting an evil flip on the question... by frankie · 2002-12-18 09:23 · Score: 5, Interesting

...how easy is it to dick with people you don't like by registering their cell phone number with dozens of text alert sites? If these messages don't include a way to unsubscribe, they probably aren't confirmed opt-in either.

Re:Putting an evil flip on the question... by who+what+why · 2002-12-18 09:37 · Score: 1

I signed up for some yahoo alerts, which are actually a pretty cool service for free, as long as you can swallow their privacy policy. I recall that they sent a code to my phone first, which I had to enter on the website before I could sign up for anything.

Of course, that doesn't help with unsubscribing if someone has already registered your number iwth them... I guess they should make these things time-limited so that you have to renew them every month or two.

They run some cool stuff like sending reminders based on your yahoo calender, or sending a weather alert every day so you can dress up nice and warm when you need to. (and yes, I need this hand holding stuff, unlike most slashbots I don't live with my mum!)
Re:Putting an evil flip on the question... by Corporate+Troll · 2002-12-18 09:37 · Score: 1

While you mean it funny... I'd rather say you shouldn't do stuff like that. I mean, even if you dislike someone that much, it still ethically unacceptable to nag people that way. If you would dislike this happening to yourself, you shouldn't do it to anyone! Just ignore people that you don't like.
I've recently heard of people nagging Trolls on Slashdot by phone/email/sms and I think that's even more childish than being a Troll on slashdot. (Note: even though my nick says I'm a Troll, I'm not... I'm a converted Troll.)
Re:Putting an evil flip on the question... by chefmonkey · 2002-12-18 09:38 · Score: 5, Informative

They are confirmed opt-in. When you first set up a mobile device, Yahoo sends it a message containing a unique password. You are required to type this password into a web page before it starts sending you alerts. So, you'd have to physically get your hands on someone else's phone to sign them up.
Generally works pretty well, except when the phone number changes hands.
Re:Putting an evil flip on the question... by quintessent · 2002-12-18 09:38 · Score: 1, Redundant

Does anyone have mobile phone numbers for spammers?

--
Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.
Re:Putting an evil flip on the question... by exhilaration · 2002-12-18 09:39 · Score: 2

I vaguely remember Yahoo sending an opt-in message to my phone with a code that had to be typed back into the website. They're not stupid, you know. :)
A far easier method would be to up a shell script to continuously send interesting messages to $phoneno@$provider.com. I have yet to see any providers offer spam protection (but that might change if Euro-style SMS spam starts in the U.S.)
Re:Putting an evil flip on the question... by Chaswell · 2002-12-18 09:49 · Score: 1

A few years ago a similar thing was all the rage for trashing people's email accounts. Sign them up for 10's of gay porn emails and they would see an avalanche. This is pretty bad since once you are on one list it spreads. I wonder how a cell company could help you if this happened to you. The number would be trashed for them even if they gave you a new one. Interesting, know the cell number of anyone you hate, sounds like time for an experiment.
Re:Putting an evil flip on the question... by knowbody · 2002-12-18 09:54 · Score: 1

WE COULD DO THAT TO RALSKY!!! Anybody know his cell #?

*muhahahahahah*
Re:Putting an evil flip on the question... by dissy · 2002-12-18 10:05 · Score: 5, Interesting

What I did is setup a forward on my machine so page-@domain forwards to my SMS address.

I only give out the page-name address to people.

This way i have full control via procmail on the filtering of who can and cant send to it and have it forwarded.

Granted someone smart can realize its my phone number @whatever.carier.com (easy to find out the email gateway too) but it stops most idiots that would only know to use what i give them.

Its also nicer as if i change phones or numbers, the address for my 'pager' never changes.

What would be really nice is for the SMS gateway to have a setting so mail addressed TO the 'correct' adderss was denied, but mail addressed to my page-name adderss is allowed.
Then I have 100% control over who pages me.

Its also nice to have copys CC'd to my real email, so i do have access to full headers, and can archive them not on the phone.

Just my $0.02
Re:Putting an evil flip on the question... by mackinaugh · 2002-12-18 10:18 · Score: 1

even this guy?
Re:Putting an evil flip on the question... by k-0s · 2002-12-18 10:22 · Score: 1

They are confirmed opt-in. When you first set up a mobile device, Yahoo sends it a message containing a unique password. You are required to type this password into a web page before it starts sending you alerts. So, you'd have to physically get your hands on someone else's phone to sign them up.

Well if you are evil just do this:

Get a hotmail/other free mail account account. Proceed to sign up for every damn list you wish to bug a person with. Get the opt in message, opt in and then have that e-mail address forward all mail to the phone address. Not to hard.

--
Visit www.seriouslythough.com
Re:Putting an evil flip on the question... by asteinberg · 2002-12-18 10:30 · Score: 2

A couple days ago, a friend of mine and I were discussing how easy it would be to piss someone off simply by adding a crontab job to send a short little e-mail to ??????????@mobile.att.net every few minutes. Of course, it would be incredibly obnoxious, but it's so easy it's scary! It seems that phone companies should give their users a way to block SMS messages from specific addresses.

--
The first ever Ultimate Frisbee video game: here (now
Re:Putting an evil flip on the question... by james_underscore · 2002-12-18 10:49 · Score: 1

Brilliant, now all we need is George W's phone number.
Re:Putting an evil flip on the question... by Corporate+Troll · 2002-12-18 10:57 · Score: 1

Hmmm, it's a bit different if you get spammed by someone and then take revenge than spamming someone just because you don't like him.
But you were right to point out to the exception of the rule.
Re:Putting an evil flip on the question... by stygar · 2002-12-18 11:33 · Score: 1

Hmm...interesting idea. What's Alan Ralsky's cellphone number?
Re:Putting an evil flip on the question... by quintessent · 2002-12-18 14:31 · Score: 2

Hmmmm. Do spammers have mod points? Well, it's not surprising that the lowest form of life would infest Slashdot too.

--
Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.

Re:Not to be a pain in the a**... by tomhudson · 2002-12-18 09:23 · Score: 3, Interesting

Perhaps because:

While the problem might be small now, it can only grow bigger in the future
It's a slow newsday
How often do you see yahoo-bashing on /.?

The Key to Advertising by ch-chuck · 2002-12-18 09:23 · Score: 3, Insightful

is 'circulation' - the reason those morons are so keen on keeping people on their 'hit' list is so they can go to their paying clients and say, "Look! You're message is reaching 250,000 potential customers". The more 'circulation' or ratings a paper, magazine or program has, the more they can charge for it. Nevermind the fact that 249,997 people have just associated $PRODUCT with annoying marketing tactics.

--
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }

Thanks for the idea. by KPU · 2002-12-18 09:23 · Score: 1

Now I can tell my friends to forge e-mail from yahoo so I don't have to pay for their messages.

Well it depends ... by SuperDuG · 2002-12-18 09:24 · Score: 2

Personally I would call the cellphone company where you receive service from and change your freekin phone number.

or turn off SMS

I mean what the hell kinda question is this, did you even bother calling that CUSTOMER SERVICE line that is on your bill??

--
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed

Happens all the time.. by wxfield · 2002-12-18 09:25 · Score: 1

Take the phone back, slap it down on the desk and demand a new number. You aren't responsible for the problem, why try to fix it?

I hate this stuff by wikthemighty · 2002-12-18 09:25 · Score: 1

Not just the text messages, but any ads.

I've only got 2 hours a month on my cell as I really only use it for emergency stuff, and retrieving extra messages like this really adds up quickly.

--
"There are people who do not love their fellow human being, and I _hate_ people like that!" - Tom Lehrer

See if the Cell Phone provider has filtering tools by wnknisely · 2002-12-18 09:25 · Score: 5, Informative

I have a cellphone with Verizon (and an associated vtext account for messages.) I tried signing up for weather alerts on my cellphone but found out quickly that the messages sent were too long to be useful.

I was able to unsubscribe from the alerts - but even after I unsubscribed from the alerts, I kept receiving advertisements from the service sent to my cellphone.

After a couple of unsucessful attempts to get it stopped I finally poked around on the Vtext site and found out that I was able to block a specified domain from sending to my cellphone.

Blocking the domain of the weather alerts provider killed the spam as well.

See if your provider doesn't let you filter out @yahoo.com messages.

--
In illa quae ultra sunt

Same problem with timex messenger watch by smartin · 2002-12-18 09:27 · Score: 2

I have the same problem with my watch. It was receiving messages before i signed up for the paging service and still gets them after i've signed up and have configured it under Yahoo! Alerts. My guess is that Yahoo has a separate ID for the watch and does not know that it should be associated with the phone number that skytel gave me.

--
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.

Re:Same problem with timex messenger watch by bbonnn · 2002-12-18 09:45 · Score: 1

Whoa, back up a moment ... you have a watch that receives SMS or pages? That is so cool! In a geekish kind of way.

Is this what you were talking about?

http://www.timex.com/html/watch_finder_adv_prod. ht ml#tim

That's totally rad. I am such a nerd. That is totally rad.
Re:Same problem with timex messenger watch by Gyan · 2002-12-18 10:47 · Score: 1

Finally !

Thank God soemone brought this up.

I have the same watch. I HATE getting all those Yahoo Sports udates when I don't even friggin care about any of the American sports leagues.

I went to mobile.yahoo.com and made sure all the sports checkboxes were unchecked. I still get them.

if anyone knows how ?
Re:Same problem with timex messenger watch by acadiel · 2002-12-18 11:02 · Score: 1

I hate these broadcasts, but I agree. I believe they are not dependent upon having an active Skytel account. I too received them before I activated my watch.

Other Motorola pagers have a 'maildrop' function as well..
Re:Same problem with timex messenger watch by Gyan · 2002-12-18 11:08 · Score: 1

'Man, are you guys the same ones from Fatwallet that got this with the year free service for $32?'

I am. Do you know how to change it ?
Re:Same problem with timex messenger watch by FUF · 2002-12-18 11:30 · Score: 1

Yep I have a Timex Internet Messenger and get all those annoying articles from Yahoo as well.. it really pisses me off! If any other timex internet messenger owners figure out a way to stop them, please let us know! I'm going to get in contact with timex and/or skytel and see if there's anything they can do about it.
Re:Same problem with timex messenger watch by smartin · 2002-12-18 12:10 · Score: 2

My guess is that yahoo is sending them directly to the id of the watch and that they are different from regular pages as they don't cause it to vibrate and they show up with the little i icon.

--
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.

Re:Not to be a pain in the a**... by pspeed · 2002-12-18 09:28 · Score: 2, Offtopic

Just wait, it will be posted again as top story in a few hours. ;)

--
Edu. sig-line: Choose rhymes with lose. Chose rhymes with goes. Loose rhymes with goose.
Comparing? THEN use THAN.

Re:Not to be a pain in the a**... by exhilaration · 2002-12-18 09:28 · Score: 5, Insightful

Disable this category in your preferences and stop bothering us.

Hotmail UCE. No, really! by Revvy · 2002-12-18 09:32 · Score: 1

I've been receiving UCE from MSN Special Offers to my Hotmail account for a couple of months now. I'm not signed up for it, and I _can't_ unsubscribe because their database doesn't think I am subscribed.

I've tried contacting abuse@hotmail.com, abuse@msn.com, and even filed a report on Microsoft's internal SPAM page. Absolutely no response except automated replies stating that I'm not filing the reports with headers (The MSN Special Offers don't have headers because they're generated internally and not sent over email).

Looks like I have some choices:
1. Give up the Hotmail account I've had for several years.
2. Take it.
3. File a complaint with some law-enforcement agency here in the state of WA.

I believe it's $500 a pop after I've notified them, isn't it? That's...over $20k in the past two months! Yeah, right.

Anybody got the email address of a Hotmail PM?

Re:Hotmail UCE. No, really! by Dave114 · 2002-12-18 10:20 · Score: 1

UCE from MSN Special Offers to my Hotmail account

Did you check the terms of service? There's likely a clause in there that allows them to send these.

Telemarketer laws? by classzero · 2002-12-18 09:32 · Score: 1, Informative

In Pennsylvania we have anti-telemarketer laws... we have a statewide list of people that they can not call and if they do they get a heafty fine. If your state has a similar law you could reply to the message saying 'take me off your list'. If they do it again contact your DA. Hell, I'd have already contacted the DA by now.

I know, this does not work with email, but you can probably get a judge to treat this as a telemarketer call.

At least you got rid of MS by frovingslosh · 2002-12-18 09:35 · Score: 2

Some idiot signed up for a passport account and gave them a dummy e-mail address that he just made up. Unfortunately it happens to be for a mailbox that I've used for years. The MS "welcome to .NEt passport" letter doesn't even give you an option to tell them that this address was subscribed in error and to take ou off their lists. I've tried sending e-mails to addresses of real people there, but everything has been ignored. I continue to get crap from them as a result of this bogus sign-up, and can't get rid of them.

--
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.

Re:At least you got rid of MS by stile · 2002-12-18 09:43 · Score: 1

What is your email, noone@nowhere.net? If so, I apologize for all of the mailing lists I've signed you up for in the past... ;)
Re:At least you got rid of MS by Osty · 2002-12-18 09:44 · Score: 3, Informative

Some idiot signed up for a passport account and gave them a dummy e-mail address that he just made up. Unfortunately it happens to be for a mailbox that I've used for years. The MS "welcome to .NEt passport" letter doesn't even give you an option to tell them that this address was subscribed in error and to take ou off their lists. I've tried sending e-mails to addresses of real people there, but everything has been ignored. I continue to get crap from them as a result of this bogus sign-up, and can't get rid of them.

What's the problem? The passport account is under your e-mail address, which means it's yours. Go to the Passport main site, follow the links to get the password for that account either mailed to you or reset (Follow the Member Services link, then "I forgot my password", follow the on-screen instructions), then login, go to Member Services, and close the account (the "Close my .NET Passport account" link). Done.
Re:At least you got rid of MS by Osty · 2002-12-18 09:55 · Score: 1

What is your email, noone@nowhere.net? If so, I apologize for all of the mailing lists I've signed you up for in the past... ;)

And here I was thinking that he's the real bob@dole.com ...

It'd be interesting to see the various different "throwaway" e-mail addresses people use when they don't actually have to get e-mail confirmation (for those that require I actually receive/read an e-mail, I've got an entire domain with near infinite throwaway accounts). Personally, I'm a big fan of bob@dole.com, then dob@bole.com, and finally teve@torbes.com. Anybody else have any other interesting ones?
Re:At least you got rid of MS by djoham · 2002-12-18 09:58 · Score: 1

root@127.0.0.1
Re:At least you got rid of MS by Rogerborg · 2002-12-18 10:06 · Score: 2

postmaster@something.gov
I try to spread it around. nsa.gov, fbi.gov, whitehouse.gov. Spread the love, people.

--
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Re:At least you got rid of MS by Nightpaw · 2002-12-18 10:20 · Score: 2

I feel sorry for asdf@asdf.com.
Re:At least you got rid of MS by The+Notorious+ASP · 2002-12-18 10:26 · Score: 1

Hey, that's MY email address too!
Re:At least you got rid of MS by in.johnnyd · 2002-12-18 10:38 · Score: 1

It'd be interesting to see the various different "throwaway" e-mail addresses people use

I use the domain of the offending website if a throwaway address is required. So if I were signing up for something at yahoo, I'd use yahoo@yahoo.com or something like that.
Re:At least you got rid of MS by Junta · 2002-12-18 11:39 · Score: 2

A note to everyone out there doing this sort of thing. Use example.com, it can never be registered to a valid address and I've never seen an email address verification that rejects it.

I always use some string @example.com

If I have to see the email, I give them myemailaddress-randomstring@myrealdomain.com, and then put a .forward-randomstring in later to /dev/null. I have full control over my email server running postfix, so I can do whatever I want.

Filling out random email addresses that could point to valid addresses not owned by you is not necessary.

--
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Re:At least you got rid of MS by Zalgon+26+McGee · 2002-12-18 14:36 · Score: 1

When an obnoxious site requires an email address toadvance, I just use "abuse@annoyingsite.com".

--
---
Book(n): Utensil used to pass time while waiting for the TV repairman
Re:At least you got rid of MS by Fredge · 2002-12-18 16:30 · Score: 1

asdf@asdf.com is Not a real address
Re:At least you got rid of MS by shawb · 2002-12-18 18:02 · Score: 1

I use foo@bar.baz

Have considered something like abuse@fbi.gov, but then again I know someone who's gotten in trouble for sending the president a death threat from someone elses account...

--
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
Re:At least you got rid of MS by kesuki · 2002-12-18 21:06 · Score: 2

That might have worked at one time. but now to 'retrieve' a forgotten password you have to know one or two of the following: Your forgotten password hint (usually from choices like mother's maiden name, pet's name, city of birth etc..) and if they have it things like your home mailing address, or bank account or credit card number, possibly your SSN.
In the case of paypay, you need to know 2 + they will only send to the e-mail you set up when you knew the password. I'm not sure how much hotmail requires, but I know they have a 'password hint' at a minimum to be 'mailed' your replacement password.
yup, you can be signed up for Hotmail/paypal/yahoo /ebay spam from any one and even though it's coming to your e-mail account you can't stop it, because you can't possibly know the password hints/personal information.

--
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

I suggest by killmenow · 2002-12-18 09:35 · Score: 1

1. Call you cell phone provider.
2. Bitch and moan - get a new phone number.
3. Repeat as necessary.

If the telco keeps having to deal with this hassle, they'll be more likely to put pressure on Yahoo! or find a more permanent solution than to keep giving their customers new numbers.

Yes, it's a hassle to you to change your number; but if it's too much hassle, suck it up and Enjoy! Your! Yahoo! Alerts!

A friend of mine has the exact same problem by swb · 2002-12-18 09:36 · Score: 5, Informative

And he's not a dumbass, either. He's found his choices are (1) put up with the messages, (2) change phone numbers, or (3) disable text messaging (carrier phenomenon). 1 and 3 are free, 2 costs money (albeit not much).

Why (4) get Yahoo! to! stop! it! please! isn't an option boils down to "they don't listen". It's one of those scary companies where there's no apparent way to actually *contact* anyone who can do something about this. There's no there, there so to speak.

He has said that the wireless carrier was particularly unhelpful, which doesn't surprise me. I had a problem for a while when I got my first cellular with getting FAX calls. They offered to *sell* me caller ID (an expensive option on a limited range of AMPS equipment), but wouldn't do anything about tracking down who it was.

I'm frankly surprised that there isn't more phone spam (how hard is it to figure out that all of a carrier's cell numbers are in NXX-5xx-xxxx?) or that message services don't build in a failsafe way to stop them, like adding a user-specfic hash code to every message and then have a web page where you can go, enter that hash, and disable that phone number's messaging.

Here's what I do.. by _aa_ · 2002-12-18 09:38 · Score: 2

This doesn't neccesarily apply to this exact situation, but it is related. I use SprintPCS. The SMS address that I am given is (for instance) 1234567890@messaging.sprintpcs.com. That's also my phone number. I think to myself, "I don't neccesarily want people who might SMS me to have my phone number, and I don't neccesarily want people who have my phone number to be able to SMS me." So my solution was to use my domain name (hosted by yahoo :O)) to make an email forwarder, Jared.2600@reack.com forwards to the 1234567890@messaging.sprintpcs.com. First, it's easier to remember. Second, I control it. If I start getting spam or unwanted messages, I can forward that email address to oblivion and make a new one. Also, if I do sign up for some sort of notification service, I can create a whole new forwarding address. Yahoo happens to offer unlimited email forwards with their domain name service, so I take advantage of that. I think most other domain hosts will do the same.

Re:Here's what I do.. by avdp · 2002-12-18 10:29 · Score: 2

That works most of the time. But there are two problems. You format of your SMS email is predictable. Even if you don't give it out, anyone that knows your cell phone number can go ahead and send you stuff. A second problem is with spammers that just send to random numbers.

Cancelled? by FS · 2002-12-18 09:39 · Score: 2, Informative

Why aren't the text message preferences deleted when the cancellation notices comes thru?

Simple, those notification messages aren't in any way related to that phone. A user is unlikely to cancel his/her yahoo account just because they cancelled their phone service.

It's obviously a problem, but definitely not an intentional one on Yahoo's part. An article like this on Slashdot is probably enough to get them to put up a page explaining how to get your number off someone else's account.

TCPA violation? by russ-smith · 2002-12-18 09:40 · Score: 2, Informative

If the called party is charged for the call they may have run afoul of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (47 USC 227 and the rules under 47 CFR 64.1200). If so you can sue them for up to $1,500 for each "call" just like a junk fax.

My problem is just the opposite by nicedream · 2002-12-18 09:40 · Score: 1

I signed up for yahoo news alerts and baseball scores for my favorite team. They are rarely delivered (perhaps 1 or 2 days out of a month) even though text messages from all my friends never have any problems getting through.

Strangely enough, I get yahoo horoscopes and weather forecasts at the EXACT same time EVERY day. I wish they would get their act together, but it's a free service so I can't really complain much.

Re:My problem is just the opposite by hatless · 2002-12-18 11:40 · Score: 2

It's December. How many pro baseball scores do you expect to get in December?
Re:My problem is just the opposite by nicedream · 2002-12-18 17:05 · Score: 1

Hahaha. No shit.

I've been signed up for them since June.

And I KNOW newsworthy things happen in December.

Thats Yahoo. by dnoyeb · 2002-12-18 09:41 · Score: 4, Interesting

That is complete BS but the same thing happened to me with email.

This is the problem.

1. Sign up for yahoo email.
2. Register an alternate email address of someone you don't like.
3. sign up the alternate address for all kinds of junk.

Their is no way they can cancel it. Yahoo will do what they always do when you email them for help, flush it down the toilet, or threaten YOU for spamming them...

Pre-spammed accounts... by writermike · 2002-12-18 09:42 · Score: 2

I agree with some of the other posts here. You'll likely have to take this up with the phone service provider, NOT Yahoo!. I suppose if I just got the phone number, I'd demand a new one. I realize that this isn't always possible or ideal, but it's the sure way to get away from it all.

I've seen similar things happen to folks who sign up with larger ISPs. Recently one signed up with RCN, got an "available" e-mail address, connected for the first time only to find 50+ spams inside from various companies.

I think we're doomed to see this more and more as ISPs/phoneservice providers run out of name/numberspace. Recycling will happen. What can the providers do if the e-mail/phonemail address is out there already? Even if they close the number of X number of months, the spammers will still pump out ads at the address.

--
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.

Use the PHONE. Speak with a PERSON. by bluephone · 2002-12-18 09:43 · Score: 4, Informative

In this age of email, web forms, IM, SMS, VoiceMail, yada yada yada, we overlook the simple telephone. I had a problem with Yahoo a few years ago, and after goign round robin with the electronic options, I picked up the phone, called teir corporate offices, and didn't stop uotil I got to someone who helped me get the problem straightened out. It took 2 days to get it done that way, versus a month of web-based frustration.

1-408-731-3300

--
jX [ Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. - Einstein ]

Standard OSS response by exhilaration · 2002-12-18 09:44 · Score: 2

If you don't like Yahoo, start YOUR OWN portal/webmail/community system.

All you need is broadband a box running Linux. Horde has pretty much everything you'd need, and there's plenty of free stuff out there to make up for any shortcomings.

I'm running Horde off my cable connection - they block port 80 but I don't care because I do everything via SSL anyway.

And in the process you'll learn a hell of a lot about networking and Linux.

I guess... by meowsqueak · 2002-12-18 09:44 · Score: 1

this is why SIM cards are useful. Sell your phone, but keep your number. Buy a second-hand phone, use a new SIM card.

While not Yahoo alerts... by stubear · 2002-12-18 09:44 · Score: 2

...I keep getting RH Network alerts in my e-mail inbox even though I no longer use RedHat. I've tried to unsubscribe on the RedHat site but it keeps resetting my preferences to "send e-mail to...". I've tried asking politely to have redhat support to remove my e-mail address from their list and/or kill the RHN account. I've threatened them with lawsuits under anti-spam laws (by the way, I knew this would not work if they called my bluff. I had no intention of pursuing legal action, I had only hoped that the possibility of legal action might get someone's attntion). Nothing, nada, zip. I keep getting their alerts and I can't get off the list no matter how hard I try. Why don't poeple think about these things when they design their systems?

Re:While not Yahoo alerts... by jazman_777 · 2002-12-18 10:40 · Score: 1

...I keep getting RH Network alerts in my e-mail inbox even though I no longer use RedHat.
It just might be easier to download RedHat, install it, and maintain it with your RNH account. Then your problem's gone!

--
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.

So does this actually work? by marlowe · 2002-12-18 09:45 · Score: 2

What if you get a ruling in your favor, and they just decide to ignore it? How do you collect your money?

--
http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe Better a smartass than a dumbass.

Re:So does this actually work? by Blkdeath · 2002-12-18 09:51 · Score: 3, Informative

What if you get a ruling in your favor, and they just decide to ignore it? How do you collect your money?

I can't tell if you're trolling, or if you're really this dense.
See, Small Claims COURT is a court of LAW ; judgements made there must be carried out and paid in full, else the guilty will face federal charges.
Yeesh.. Do they let just anybody come here or what?

--
BD Phone Home!
Shameless plug. Like you weren't expecting it.
Re:So does this actually work? by Anonymous Coward · 2002-12-18 10:08 · Score: 1, Insightful

They won't face federal charges. You'll have to take them to court again to obtain the means to collect your previous judgement.

I learned the hard way long ago that anybody that wants to screw you can do so with impunity so long as their legal resources are a lot bigger than yours.
Re:So does this actually work? by llamaluvr · 2002-12-18 10:15 · Score: 2, Interesting

I worked in a municipal court over the summer. I watched a lot of people not get their money in small claims court.

Now, if you win against somebody like Yahoo!, then you're probably pretty safe. They're a big target, and they're not particularly likely or able to hide themselves, and they probably won't go bankrupt due to a small claims suit. However, while getting a default judgement is relatively easy (it's your proof against them not showing up), it can be very difficult to track people to get them to pay. Often, people who get evicted move out and don't leave an address or number, or businesses who get sued simply "disappear", and there's no contact avaialbe for the person who ran the business. Once they find an personal address or place of employment or the place where they bank, they can garnish wages or accounts, or serve them for a debtors exam, where they would reveal all their assets.

The bottom line is, once you get a judgement in your favor, it's not as easy as you think to get your money.

--
Insightful: 76, Off-Topic: 379, Flamebait: 24, Funny: 152, Interesting: 201, Underrated: 55, Troll: 9, Total: 896
Re:So does this actually work? by gandy909 · 2002-12-18 10:19 · Score: 2, Informative

Not quite that at all. Although IANAL, I have been working in a Court for the past 13 years now and I can tell you with some degree of certainty that "getting a Judgment" from the Court does NOT get you your money/property/etc. i.e. the Court does not "go get it" for you... YOU have to do ALL the work. What that Judgment from Small Claims Court does do though (depending on what state you/other party live in) is give you the legal authority to place liens on the other party's property, bank accounts, etc., and do other things like garnish the other party's wages for up to the amount of the Judgment. There are lots of sticky problems to contend with though. For example, in some, or maybe all, states if the property or account is jointly owned you are out of luck trying to attach the lien or account, etc, etc.

--

(Stolen sig) Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus", a "Microsoft worm", not a "computer worm
Re:So does this actually work? by Blkdeath · 2002-12-18 10:48 · Score: 1

If you can't find the loser and you cannot locate his assets, you're SOL.

They're Yahoo! - they're not likely to pick up and relocate.
Oh, and you're in here, so I guess they do let in anybody.

You wanna grow a set and say that with your user ID?

--
BD Phone Home!
Shameless plug. Like you weren't expecting it.
Re:So does this actually work? by Ooblek · 2002-12-18 10:52 · Score: 5, Informative

My, you are full of yourself to call someone dense when you obviously have never gone through the process yourself.
To add to the previous respondents that also said you're wrong, I can give an example of what happens in small claims. My brother went through this and it took him a year to collect his money.
An established nursery business with several locations in a particular city in Oklahoma let one of their unlicensed, illegal immigrant workers drive one of their spare cars. This guy came barreling down the road, over the hill, and realized he was going too fast to avoid hitting the car that had stopped at the light in front of him. He swerved into oncoming traffic and nailed my brother head on as he was waiting in the oncoming turn lane. Police came, arrested illegal immigrant for no license and no insurance. My brothers car needed major work, and he only had liability as he had just paid it off a month before.
Nursery came and bailed the guy out of jail. The nursery claimed they had sold the car to the guy, and "We're not responsible." My brother went to the DMV and had to pay to get the ownership records himself, as proof that they were the registered owners. He had to pay to file the claim in small claims court. He had to pay to have them served with a summons. They didn't show up to court, so he won. He sent them several letters, never got an acknowledgement or a dime from them.
He went back to court a few months later with delivery receipts of the letters he had sent. He had to buy something from the nursery with a check so that he could figure out where their bank account was and what the number was. Once he had this information, he ask the court for a garnishment. It was granted, he went to the bank, and got about half of what he was owed because they didn't have enough in the account to cover the full amount. Another round of registered letters, another trip back to court, another garnishment, and he finally got to their bank account at a time when they had enough money to cover what he was owed and all the additional costs he had accrued trying to collect the money.
This is the same wherever you go, and it even will work in your favor if you get sued. Just don't pay, and it can take months or years for them to get the money out of you, if they ever get it. Now, there is of course no guarentee you won't eventually piss some judge off and have a warrant issued for you.
Re:So does this actually work? by Blkdeath · 2002-12-18 11:54 · Score: 3, Insightful

To add to the previous respondents that also said you're wrong, I can give an example of what happens in small claims. My brother went through this and it took him a year to collect his money.

Wow.. Can you add any more variables to that case? Illegal immigrant, no license, nursery without sufficient funds to cover costs, ...
I never said it would be a one-day, zero expense endeavour, but it certainly doesn't involve a Columbo-esque plot or a potential international incident.
Moreover; press attention would do wonders for this case. Yahoo! doesn't want their name smeared rightly across the headlines for something they could settle for $200. In all likelyhood they'd pay the money to get rid of you. They'll waste large amounts of legal funding on cases that matter.

--
BD Phone Home!
Shameless plug. Like you weren't expecting it.
Re:So does this actually work? by Mitreya · 2002-12-18 13:14 · Score: 2

Ehm, moderators? How is this offtopic? I find it quite relevant to the discussion.
As far as Ooblek's brother -- this is the determination that I tend to admire. I think such persistent people may improve things in our world. Few people who screw others come to understand that screwing people is bad.. only if they are taught in a hard way. If he sued the nursery for 1M dollars it would have been even more effective...
Please mod the parent up.
Re:So does this actually work? by mophab · 2002-12-19 06:57 · Score: 1

In our county, if you win a claim against a retail establishment, you can pay for a County Sheriff to stand by their cash register and collect incoming receipts from each sale. This usually results in full payment within an hour.
Re:So does this actually work? by buck_wild · 2002-12-19 12:43 · Score: 1

You can pay to have a Sheriff stand there and collect receipts?? How much does that cost, and in which state do you reside?

--
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Why? by margaret · 2002-12-18 09:45 · Score: 1

Why aren't the text message preferences deleted when the cancellation notices comes thru?

Because that would require one of two things:
1) competence
2) the responsible parties giving a damn

Customer service seems to be in a downward spiral across the board. I think much of it stems from a lack of accountability.

A Call To Arms by stile · 2002-12-18 09:46 · Score: 1

Oh great. So is this the part where some enterprising /.er gets the cellphone number of Yahoo's execs, and we all sign him up for daily messaging services all over, or something?

Profit! by limekiller4 · 2002-12-18 09:48 · Score: 5, Interesting

This is simple. And yes, I'm dead serious.

Contact Yahoo through a reasonable contact (abuse@yahoo.com should be fine, though legal@ wouldn't hurt either), letting them know your efforts to remove your name using their controls.
Inform them that you'll give them a 10-day grace period to correct this.
Also inform them that you have a great new service of your own; proofreading!
Also inform them that if they wish to continue sending you messages, you will be more than happy to proofread them and bill them at a rate of nnn.nn per message. Let them know that your offer is opt-in; if they wish to participate, they can simply send you another message.
Let them know you bill on a net-30 basis.
Find out the names and email contact points for their board of directors.
Each time they opt-in by way of another message, bill them and cc their board of directors. Actually billing them is the crucial point but this can be accomplished fairly easily.
Profit!

Trust me. You won't be on that list for long. If you are, take a trip to your friendly neighborhood court and file for a small claims case. Then you're talking settlement.

--
My .02,
Limekiller

Re:Profit! by B.D.Mills · 2002-12-18 10:36 · Score: 4, Informative

It's even easier than that.

IANAL.

By sending unsolicited advertisements, Yahoo! are breaking the c.1991 law that says it is illegal to send unsolicited advertisements to a mobile device.

A mobile phone is a mobile device.

And you can make them pay up to $500 per message.

--

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke
Re:Profit! by SirWhoopass · 2002-12-18 10:49 · Score: 3, Interesting

I'd love to believe this, but it sounds like this is an "opt-in" service that he can't get out of. You'd probably need to send them a registered letter first, indicating that you wish to opt-out of the service. If that is ignored, then you've got some documentation that you can take to court.
Re:Profit! by limekiller4 · 2002-12-18 10:49 · Score: 1

Out !@#$ing standing. =) Thanks for your reply.

--
My .02,
Limekiller
Re:Profit! by mlk · 2002-12-18 12:02 · Score: 1

Has anyone tried this, and got it to work?

I had a simmarly(sp?) problem with Genie.co.uk eating up my call credit when the moved from a free service to pay-per-message. After 3 or 4 emails I finally got someone to email me the details, but this would of been a lot more fun :-)

--
Wow, I should not post when knackered.
Re:Profit! by hng_rval · 2002-12-18 12:35 · Score: 1

This is a superb idea. Even if it doesn't net you any Profit it will most assuredly get them to stop messaging you.

--
Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!
Re:Profit! by Chagrin · 2002-12-18 13:41 · Score: 2

Ahh that's crap. Check your state's laws: you likely have legal recourse to sue in the event that the messages continue. Are you charged per text message? It's just like receiving unsolicited faxes (which we know is illegal).

Send certified mail to their legal department and ask them to stop sending the messages. If they fail to stop the messages, take them to small claims court.

--
I/O Error G-17: Aborting Installation
Re:Profit! by Afty0r · 2002-12-18 22:30 · Score: 1

Surely a laptop is also a mobile device?

When equipped with a wireless network card, or GSM (mobile phone access to TCP/IP on the net) card, what is the fundamental difference between a laptop and a common mobile phone? Keyboard and screen size?

In this way, sending spam email to an owner of a laptop would surely be illegal too?

Call them on the phone! by krismon · 2002-12-18 09:49 · Score: 1

I'd get them on the phone and keep calling up the chain of command until it gets fixed.

The hard to find Customer service phone number:

408-349-3300 press 2

Good Luck.

answer: copyright violation by donutz · 2002-12-18 09:49 · Score: 5, Informative

I had an old geocities account that didn't get converted to my yahoo account, and after months of unsuccessful attempts to get the darn thing cancelled, I wrote a letter to the Yahoo person in charge of copyright violations, and explained that Yahoo was violating my copyright to the works posted on that old geocities account. Effectively, by limiting my ability to control the distribution of my copyrighted works, they were violating my copyrights. Not that I wanted to sue or anything, I just wanted those pages gone.

Not long after, that account disappeared, and I was happy.

Re:answer: copyright violation by xyote · 2002-12-18 10:09 · Score: 2, Interesting

That should work. Send them a DMCA violation notice. That would force them to take it off.
Re:answer: copyright violation by Uninvited+Guest · 2002-12-19 07:34 · Score: 1

Please, post a copy of your letter to Yahoo for posterity. Perhaps someone will get use out of it in the future.

--
Sometimes I worry that I'll develop Alzheimer's disease, but no one will notice.

Not a solution by Andy+Dodd · 2002-12-18 09:54 · Score: 2

Unless you can config your phone to ONLY accept incoming messages forwarded via sneakemail, this won't help the user one bit - This spam will simply bypass the sneakemail account and go right to his phone.

Yes, it's a useful way to give out an SMS contact address without giving out your phone's direct address, which you can revoke if it starts receiving spam. But once spam starts coming directly to the phone, you're screwed.

And it's not the user's fault in this case - He didn't do anything to sign up for these spams, it happens that he has inherited the spam that a former user (to whom it was likely not spam) had.

--
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?

Are phone numbers tied to the hardware in US??? by Anonymous Coward · 2002-12-18 09:55 · Score: 1, Insightful

If I would buy a used cell phone, I would insert my SIM-card into it. Problem solved.

another option by exhilaration · 2002-12-18 09:56 · Score: 3, Informative

(Using Windows...) Install Outlook 2k or higher to download your Hotmail messages to your local machine. Install CloudMark and say goodbye to 99% of your spam. This will also remove any space limits imposed by Hotmail, as your mail will now be sitting on your own hard drive.

Re:another option by exhilaration · 2002-12-18 11:51 · Score: 2

Posting AC so I can mod you up--I had no idea that Outlook (other than OE) could do that. Thanks!
I didn't think it was possible until one of my friends proved me wrong by doing it. My sister is always at 98% or 99% disk usage on Hotmail, so I installed Outlook on her PC to let her download her messages. It worked, much to my surprise.
When Microsoft acquired Hotmail they probably immediately started working on integrating it into Windows and Office.
Re:another option by benzapp · 2002-12-18 12:20 · Score: 2

I hope someone else can try this. I just downloaded this software and it works correctly for email that comes through a regular POP server, but it has no effect on hotmail. I figured as much because filters do not work on hotmail folders either. Now, perhaps I am doing something wrong, but the software works exactly like any other filter. You mark an email by hitting a block button and it moves it to a spam folder. In fact, it creates a spam folder for you.

--
I don't read or respond to AC posts
Re:another option by cuyler · 2002-12-18 14:37 · Score: 2

I get NO spam on my hotmail account and I've had it for over 3 years now. Of course, every address that as the '@' symbol in it are automatically thrown into the trash.

I only use the account for MSN.
Re:another option by sgtrock · 2002-12-19 03:39 · Score: 1

Let's see;

When Microsoft acquired Hotmail they immediately announced that they were going to migrate off those slow, ineffective insecure Open Source *BSD servers to the much faster, secure, and stable Win2000 servers in 6 months. Well, they finally managed it about 3 years later after throwing massive amounts of hardware at their mail service.

Also, longtime Hotmail account holders claim that the spam didn't start getting bad until AFTER Microsoft bought the company. Hmmm, ya don't suppose MS saw an opportunity to market your email address without your express permission?

Finally, why on Earth would anyone recommend using Outlook or Outlook Express to read mail? Or don't you bother to read all the reports of exploits of Outlook's incredibly weak security model?

Do yourself a favor. Download Mozilla and use that mail client instead, then learn to applay some simple filtering rules. Better yet, dump your Hotmail account and find an ISP that actively discourages spam!

Plug for the finest ISP in Minnesota:

http://www.visi.com

This company has a sysadmin staff and ownership dedicated to the proposition that their customers' data is their own, NOT theirs. They do provide services for people not located in their geographic area for some small fee. Check them out if you're looking for the best!

Court by nuggz · 2002-12-18 09:57 · Score: 3, Informative

Really? You can send anyone of your chossing a bill and then sue them just 'cause they didn't pay? How do you know you're even sending it to the proper accounts payable department?

Yes you can sue anyone for not paying a bill.
In court they can just argue they're not the right person. That is why we have small claims court, to facilitate small claims cheaply and easily for all 3 parties. (You, them and the gov)

Re:Court by _ph1ux_ · 2002-12-18 10:46 · Score: 2

yes and this system is abused.

I recently got sued by a housekeeper who I stopped using in 2000. They sent me a subpeona after a year and a half claiming I owed them money.

Their "bill" was just some cells from excel pasted into a word letter and printed.

I went to the wrong court the first time, and automatically lost. then they issued a warrant for my arrest and then the guy subpeona'd me again claiming more money was owed.

I went and he didnt show. since I had to post a bail on the warrant so they wouldnt make me stay in jail over night, they judged that the warrant post satisfied the claim and it was dropped.

This is how small claims court get abused - and it happens very often due to the small amounts of money, so they dont do anything about it.

If I see this guy on the street - he will have some hefty hospital bills.

dont ever use Molly Maids as a house cleaning service.

http://alerts.yahoo.com/ by MrJones · 2002-12-18 10:00 · Score: 1

This is a simple question, get to:
Yahoo Alerts
and delete/disable all the alerts that you don't want any more.
Also, go to Yahoo.com, click on "More Yahoo", then click on Alerts.

HTH

--
Get my e-mail after a captcha test in: http://tinymailt

Re:http://alerts.yahoo.com/ by jasonkohles · 2002-12-18 11:32 · Score: 1

It would only be simple if it worked, if I go look, mine says only 'No alerts set up', just like it has for more than 6 months. That doesn't stop them from sending me 4-5 messages a day though.
Re:http://alerts.yahoo.com/ by MrJones · 2002-12-18 23:47 · Score: 1

How about this one:
Yahoo Mobile Alerts
Click on "More" from my original link

--
Get my e-mail after a captcha test in: http://tinymailt

umm.... by exhilaration · 2002-12-18 10:00 · Score: 2

What the hell would that accomplish? The spam is being sent to a phone number, which is tied to the SIM card. You can swap phones a hundred times but those SMS messages will follow you as long as your phone doesn't change.

Re:umm.... by bluephone · 2002-12-18 10:09 · Score: 2

No no, the guy who would have had the phone number originally would still have it, and this new guy wouldn't have the problem of getting spam meant for the old owner.

--
jX [ Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. - Einstein ]
Re:umm.... by exhilaration · 2002-12-18 10:19 · Score: 2

Correction: ...as long as your phone number doesn't change.
Re:umm.... by exhilaration · 2002-12-18 10:22 · Score: 2

oh i see - i thought you were suggesting a solution for this guy
my bad yo

Tmobile incomings by rosewood · 2002-12-18 10:08 · Score: 2

Recently Ive been receiving a shitload of wap push messages via tmobile (USA) and they are all giberish. Tmobile just tells me TS and last month they damn near sent me over the 300.

--
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!

been there, done that by frovingslosh · 2002-12-18 10:10 · Score: 2

The page you speak of wants information like my state and zip code (and I don't know what the idiot used). There is a "I forgot my password" link that claims they will mail you a new password without this info, but this is the one piece of e-mail that I never seem to get from them. I tried again today, but they will not send it!

--
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.

They publish this... by Kafka_Canada · 2002-12-18 10:12 · Score: 1, Offtopic

The Slashdot editors post this basically trivial story, but make no mention of the fact that AOL just patented instant messaging . What the hell??

all's i'm sayin' is, (crack) is somebody's been smokin' SUMTHIN'....

--
Fuck it

Re:They publish this... by GigsVT · 2002-12-18 10:55 · Score: 1

Check the older stories man.

--
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.

Mod system needed for the stories by nlinecomputers · 2002-12-18 10:12 · Score: 1

I got labeled a troll before but I going to rant again.

Will someone please pull thier head out of their ass and read the freaking front page?

Sorry about that. I'm Ok now. That is the end of the rant now on to something productive:

Is there something the slashdot community as a whole can do to prevent this? Does shashdot need new or additional editors or should a mod system be developed for the stories themselves?

I personally would like to see a mod system for the stories themselves. Then we can mod the stories and keep redundant stories from appearing the same way comments on the stories are moded.

Is this not something that could be implemented?

--
Slashdot, home of supporters of free software, free music, and free speech.Except for Moderators that disagree with you.

I seem to recall they didn't always do that by Vengeance · 2002-12-18 10:13 · Score: 1

I don't know when it changed, I suppose it could be anytime in the last 3+ years, but I'm SURE I remember setting up this service without any confirmation procedure back in the day.

Most likely, they know there's an issue with this, and have put in this measure to stop it from happening again... Small consolation for those who are experiencing this.

--
It was a joke! When you give me that look it was a joke.

one idea by zogger · 2002-12-18 10:13 · Score: 1

--I thought of something. You said "no headers". Well, maybe no problem, create your own headers which consist of the message you are trying to get across to the bozos, like "Yo! I'm trying to report YOU and you don't have any headers in your SPAM " and etc, e-mail looking formatted to taste.

Alternate like someone else suggested, small claims court, which I think if thousands of people did it in the various states that outlaw unsollicited spam and phone calls and text messages and what not would stop this stuff faster than any amount of bayseian math voodoo spam filters. MSN or spamking or whomever, e mail complaining not working, losing THOUSANDS of court cases and being fined just might, even if it's hard to collect from them eventually some press articles would embarass tyhem enough. Or hey, have bill gates served with the bill from your judgement by a claims processor.

With that said I've never had a hotmail account, are they still freebies? Or do they charge now or what? If it's a freebie I guess you get what ya pay for. I've had bad luck with every "free" email service I ever tried, so don't use them any more, FWIW.

Besides that I dunno and maybe none of this would work. I once had my host eat my website when they got sold to earthfink and no amount of phone calls or emails would resove it, I never did anything about it, as the point was moot, they no longer existed as what they were before. Next time though, if something like that were to happen, I will go the local small claims route. And as soon as spam is made illegal in my state I'll start filing as well. No idea why more people don't sue spammers in the states that allow it.

This is almost as annoying as... by phorm · 2002-12-18 10:14 · Score: 2

Getting the old fax number of a Chinese businessman. I used to get continual faxes to my land-line at about 2-3am... try were traced to China.

Spam is annoying in your inbox, when it makes it to your phone it is ten times the annoyance. Shouldn't they mandate a block/allow list for cellphones, since (on many plans) it's a pay-per service. i.e. with my local carrier, it's $0.10 for text message unless you subscribe to the service.
More recently, they allowed users to be exempt from either the service subscription or the per-use payments... but it's still annoying to have so little control over your phone email - especially once spammers decide to start hitting random 1235555555@text.mycellphoneprovider.com

Your state may have an applicable law... by meara · 2002-12-18 10:15 · Score: 2, Informative

Depending on where you live, you may be able to sue to recoup airtime costs. For example, California has passed an anti-mobile-spam law.

Unfortunately, unless you're bored and otherwise unemployed, this is hardly worth the while.

Re:Not to be a pain in the a**... by Zerbey · 2002-12-18 10:16 · Score: 3, Insightful

But what is this doing on the front page? This is something you ask a smaller specialized forum, not the slashdot community. I can hardly see how this will generate meaningful or intellectual discussion, and I can definitely not see how this is news for nerds or stuff that matters.

1. Because most geeks own cell phones
2. Because most geeks have an interest in wireless communications
3. Because most geeks have an interest in stopping spam

In addition, I think the discussion thus far has been very interesting. If it bothers you, you can filter it out in the preferences.

The problem is in the email address.... by The+Notorious+ASP · 2002-12-18 10:16 · Score: 1

So why would you get your six year old daughter the email address SexyRapeLover@localISP.com?
That's just asking for trouble!

Speaking of email to phones.... by raehl · 2002-12-18 10:18 · Score: 5, Funny

Does anyone have Alan Rasky's cell phone number?

I have a couple really good deals on Viagra and Penis Enlargement to pass on.

--
paintball

Re:Speaking of email to phones.... by windex · 2002-12-18 11:35 · Score: 2

On behalf of:

Christopher Raehl
1133 Industrial Blvd
Chippewa Falls, WI 54729
(715) 720-9131

I would like to remind everyone to stop feeding the trolls.

Thank you.
Re:Speaking of email to phones.... by Tisha_AH · 2002-12-19 01:23 · Score: 1

I think he doesn't need the penis enlargement. Have you seen a picture of his face? . His condoms come in "44 wide" with a 16" neck

--
Tisha Hayes

Yahoo Text Messages are Per Account by fraudrogic · 2002-12-18 10:19 · Score: 2, Insightful

I use the Yahoo text messaging for once a month reminders (give dog meds, hair cut, wife ovulating,etc..) I'm not sure you can create a yahoo account to discontinue the messages since the messages are probably created by your cell number's predecessor's Yahoo account.

Does Yahoo even have access to this kind of information? "Yeah, can you guys look up my cell phone number among your thousands of subscribers and modify that subscribers text messenging preferences?" That sounds like a nightmare of a problem.

I suggest changing your Cell Phone number. That's your easiest solution.

--
I only mod up parents of "mod parent up" posts...

SIM cards solves problem by oddityfds · 2002-12-18 10:19 · Score: 1

The problem here is that the previous owner of the phone signed up to these things and that the new owner is forced to use the same telephone number as the previous owner.

The new owner of the phone should be able to put his own GSM-style SIM card with his own telephone number in the phone. By mapping telephone numbers to SIM cards instead of to telephones the buyer of a used phone don't have to worry about who the previous owner of the phone gave away his phone number to. (And as an added bonus he gets to keep is old number.)

Re:SIM cards solves problem by oddityfds · 2002-12-18 10:59 · Score: 1

Yeah, sure, the SIM card is just another way of authenticating to the network so you can log on and get you personal phone number. If you have some kind of secret code instead, that's fine. (Well, I suppose SIM cards are more secure, but I wouldn't know.)

redhat by zogger · 2002-12-18 10:24 · Score: 1

--that's weird, I've never had any trouble unsubscribing a particular install after logging in to the account. Sure you are accepting the cookie? That's part of it.

People buy used cell phones? by cejones · 2002-12-18 10:26 · Score: 1

Last I heard, cell phones were throw away devices that you use for 6-9 months and then upgrade to a new better model....

If it is bothering you so much as to bother the slashdot world , why not call your provider and change your phone number? D'uh!

Re:People buy used cell phones? by frause · 2002-12-19 05:14 · Score: 1

why not call your provider and change your phone number? 1. It probably costs money 2. Changing number means tracking everone that might be wanting to contact you down and telling them that you did just that. (I certainly don't want do do that for my six year old phonenumber)

I feel so guilty. by Unknown+Poltroon · 2002-12-18 10:26 · Score: 4, Funny

youre bob@bob.com, areny you?!? You poor spam buried bastard, ive been using that as a throwaway address for years.

--
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.

Re:I feel so guilty. by KieranElby · 2002-12-18 10:33 · Score: 1

Seriously though, that's what the .invalid tld is reserved for - e.g. bob@this.address.is.invalid.

Similarly, example.com is reserved for use in documentation etc and will never be allocated.

Personally I feel sorry for the owners of test.com and foo.com ...
Re:I feel so guilty. by Duckz · 2002-12-18 13:48 · Score: 2

I was notvalid@address.com; I opted to abandon the mailbox after a while, something about too many companies thinking I was Joe Blow and several other generic names didn't please me.
--
Todd

You can't get out of Yahoo by donutello · 2002-12-18 10:32 · Score: 2

A few years ago (not sure what I was thinking) I registered for a Yahoo! account. Of course, I wouldn't tell the scumbags my real DOB or zip code. Later I forgot about this account.

A few months ago Yahoo changed their spam policy to opt-out. Suddenly I started getting junk mail in my regular account. I tried to login to the Yahoo account to change the settings but couldn't since I forgot my password. I couldn't use the online thing to get a new password since it required my DOB and zip code to do that.

After several attempts at trying to sort it out with Yahoos customer disservice, I arrived at the following conclusions:
- I could not change the spam policy without signing in.
- They would not stop sending me junk mail to my regular email account without signing in.
- They would not delete the account unless I could prove it was me - having the same name and access to the email account registered for the account did not count.
- They would not give me the password to my account or change it.

I ended up just dumping the email account and starting afresh. Luckily, it was not one I used heavily.

--
Mmmm.. Donuts

Re:You can't get out of Yahoo by ars · 2002-12-18 21:57 · Score: 1

I has a similar problem. Although I think I did know what the zip was.
I simply wrote a script (using wget and the shell) that tried all dates in the past 100 years. I was surprised that it only took about 5 minutes to crack the date.
You might want to try that if you have any information at all about which date and zip it might be. Especially if you can guess part of the zip.
With a fast connection, you can try hundreds of dates per second.
Use an account you know the info for to see what is the output when you have success vs failure and put that in the script.

--
-Ariel

bubba.com by Unknown+Poltroon · 2002-12-18 10:40 · Score: 2

one of my instructors used this ans an example for a class for the whole semester, untill someone pointed out that bubba.com existed, and was full of tateful pictures of neekid women.

--
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.

Staples spams, and like Yahoo won't stop... by Spoing · 2002-12-18 10:41 · Score: 2

My domain has recieved fresh spam from them on a regular basis. Givning Staples the benifit of the doubt -- the accounts spammed are test accounts -- I've contacted them a couple different ways telling them to stop. Unfortunately, I've contacted them about once a month for the last 6 months, each time they apoligize and each time they say that my domain won't recieve any more solicitiations...only that it may take 4-6 weeks for the request to process.

No more. If I recieve a single spam from them in 2003, they will be reported to all the anti-spam services I already use. F-em!

--
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.

Maybe I'm A Farmer... by Zapaanese_Wh0re · 2002-12-18 10:41 · Score: 1

...but I don't own a cellphone any longer (several reasons, the least of which is peace and quiet), and I'm sure someone must have mentioned this before, but are you telling me that there's no block filter capability on cellphones for IM? So in essence, if I were an unscrupulous/moronic spam master, I could innundate someone's cellphone that has IM capability with impunity? Seems to me, the real problem is the cellphone companies not providing the minimum of service. Especially if they're going to charge for it... - Z

Tech support number for Yahoo by Mitchell+Mebane · 2002-12-18 10:47 · Score: 5, Informative

/me pulls up his super-secret list of contact numbers

Ah, here we go. Give Yahoo a call at 1-408-349-3300. Took me a while to find that number, but it actually works.

--

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
--Aristotle

Re:Tech support number for Yahoo by mchang · 2002-12-18 17:04 · Score: 1

Yahoo contact info Or just google "yahoo, sunnyvale, ca"
Re:Tech support number for Yahoo by bitweever · 2002-12-19 03:06 · Score: 1

I had the exact same thing happen as the original poster, except mine kept coming because I deleted the UserID. You'd think deleting the user would kill this, but it didn't.

Anyway, I called the number listed above, didn't hold for long, and got thru to a person (may have had to do some menu surfing). They had the service shut off the next day, as well as the BillPay service that was hitting my checking account for $2 a month.

So, while the rest of the replies on this thread are talking about small claims court, lawyers, and the like, try the simple thing first.

Change your e-mail address if possible by Anonymous Coward · 2002-12-18 10:47 · Score: 5, Funny

I used to get a lot of important e-mail from the folks at Microsoft telling me about their wonderful products. After making several unsuccessful attempts to get off their mailing list, I finally changed my profile and set my e-mail address to postmaster@microsoft.com. Worked like a charm.

---insert signature line here---

Re: Ask silly questions -- It is the /. way :-) by Sanga · 2002-12-18 10:52 · Score: 1

EOM

Molly Maids by Glonoinha · 2002-12-18 10:53 · Score: 1

Is this anything like Mandy Mounds?

--
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer

simple solution by Kunta+Kinte · 2002-12-18 11:07 · Score: 4, Informative

disable SMS for a short while.

Most mailing list unsubscribe you if your messages bounce for some limit.

Inconveniet yes, but it should work.

--
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW

Re:simple solution by zbuffered · 2002-12-18 12:37 · Score: 2

Probably not -- before he got the number, it was likely not used for some time, during which countless SMS messages must've bounced off of the server. Result? Still getting SMS Spam. It's possible they re-assigned the number right away, but my bet is that it was bouncing SMS for at least a week or so.

--
Synergy is your friend
Re:simple solution by Ben+Hutchings · 2002-12-20 03:07 · Score: 2

In theory, by requesting delivery notifications one can find out whether an SMS got delivered. In practice, undeliverable SMSs silently disappear into a black hole.

Provider Tech Support by Cold+Drink · 2002-12-18 11:08 · Score: 1

I had to have Spring teir 2 tech support block all messages from Yahoo!

--
-Cold Drink

YES! I used to get stock quotes from Yahoo! by snork54 · 2002-12-18 11:12 · Score: 1

I got the following quotes!
SNS,MCD,MSFT,PME,PALM,HAND,RACN,CCK,UAL,AMR

the worst part is that they all come in around the same time in different messages!!!

How did I stop it? Turned off text messages for a month.

This is why I want to own a phone number. by Mustang+Matt · 2002-12-18 11:15 · Score: 2

I wish I could purchase my phone number for life.

I know there are some services out there that do this, but they don't cover my area code.

Then I could freely switch from provider to provider without losing my number.

--
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin

Re:This is why I want to own a phone number. by AnnaBlack · 2002-12-18 20:31 · Score: 1

In the UK, we can freely switch mobile phone operators and preserve our numbers. My boss has been with all 3 of the main operators in the UK and has had the same number all that time (around six years). Makes life easier since the operators all know customers can switch with minimal hassle, so it's easy to phone up every 12 months to "talk about leaving" and be offered a new phone at a substantial discount.
I'm surprised keeping your phone number isn't a constitutional right in the USA - aren't you guys supposed to live in the Land of the Free?

Re:In Soviet Russia by iWishMeHadModPoints · 2002-12-18 11:30 · Score: 1

Damn, that's funny, I wish I had some mod points.

--
Some day I will have mod points, so add me to your friends.

What to do by Eric+Smith · 2002-12-18 11:36 · Score: 3, Informative

Any suggestions for what I should do next to try and get Yahoo! to stop sending these unwanted messages?

Sue them in small claims court for a few hundred dollars. They'll probably settle and pay you off, but if they keep sending you the unwanted messages, you can just keep suing them and collecting money from them.

IANAL, so I don't really know how well this will work.

I just got the best idea. by Vladimir9 · 2002-12-18 11:41 · Score: 1

About how to get revenge on someone.

How I get results by complaining - a guide by Wiseleo · 2002-12-18 11:43 · Score: 5, Informative

I routinely handle complaints on behalf of my customers with their vendors. Some vendors, such as Verio, are beyond awful to work with based on my experience. Some vendors know me by name if enough of my clients have issues with them :-). I will outline my techniques for the common benefit of the readers.

My typical procedure (first week):

1. Contact first level personnel for about 3 days and gather employee IDs and case numbers.
2. Cease talking with first level and skip directly to first level supervisors confronting them with evidence. Do so for 1 day, on the 3rd day with at least 2 calls documenting the supervisor employee ID and case numbers.
3. Cease talking with supervisors and skip directly to second level supervisors. Do so for 1 day similar to 1st level.
4. Advise the second level supervisor that if the problem is not handled within the next 24 hours (the 5th day), the next directive will be received from his manager, ignore the laughter if any insues.
5. Follow up the next day (by then you should have a direct line) and remind him that the problem still exists.

Begin corporate level follow ups as follows (second week, generally 2 to 3 days):

1. Look up the company's corporate records for the following:
a) The front desk phone number
b) The Investor Relations (or any other PR function) - optional, never used it
c) The legal counsel of the company - optional, never used it
d) The company's mailing address for the HQ
2. Contact the front desk and ask to be transferred to the Office of the President/CEO. It's really none of their business to know why, but be candid and polite.
3. Believe it or not, most of the time you will in fact reach the executive assistant or someone whose job is specifically to resolve stretched out problems. Once you reach that person, obtain their direct number, e-mail, fax, and mailing address. Be prepared to send a ton of evidence of wrongdoing. The people at the top generally will have the organization chart available and know the executive in charge of that particular part of the company.
4. If you are lucky, and most of the time you won't be, you'll be given contact information for that particular executive. The executives are extremely busy people, so you'll likely talk to his assistant instead. Most of the time, however, it's not really necessary.
5. Be prepared for very different treatment the next time you call the customer service department as your name will be quite well known around the company. A simple memo from about 4-5 management levels down advising on how to deal with your problem carries infinitely more weight than any insult you can come up with.

Yes, I get results fast and this kind of work generally costs the client about $1200 or so. In fact, I once got a Nortel Regional VP in charge of my area to contact me within literally 40 minutes of me reaching just the front desk at Nortel to resolve a vendor issue. The vendor subsequently lost their authorization from Nortel.

Does this sound like overkill? Try to call Yahoo front desk, ask for Office of CEO, and present your case. Internal pressure is very effective.

Oh yeah, the mailing address is for the thank you letter along with hard copies of the evidence.

Enjoy!

--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Find me on Quora :)

Re:How I get results by complaining - a guide by andrewski · 2002-12-20 13:48 · Score: 1

Thanks for the suggestions. You seem to have a damn good plan here, and I'll surely give it a try.

Sometimes, there will be a concerted effort to railroad you from the start. I'm pretty sure legal action is the only way to go there.

8. Profit?? Dude, This Is Slashdot! by Myriad · 2002-12-18 11:54 · Score: 2

8. Profit!

Step eight is proft? Eight?!? Sorry dude, this is Slashdot... until you can break that down to a four step program it'll never fly!

--
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'

I Kept Getting SMS from a National Football Team by AShocka · 2002-12-18 11:54 · Score: 2, Funny

to show up to training for their squad. I never knew they were so desperate for the services of an overweight late 40's something. It went on for months. They even rang, but I ignored them, they just couldn't afford me.

On a related note... by Wonko42 · 2002-12-18 11:56 · Score: 2

On a somewhat related note, if you're the guy who keeps calling my cell phone at 4am and asking, in a slurred voice, if you can speak to Jared, please stop. I mean it. I'm not Jared and I don't know Jared, and even if I was Jared I would kill you for waking me up at 4am.

Comment removed by account_deleted · 2002-12-18 12:02 · Score: 3, Funny

Comment removed based on user account deletion

What might work.... by purduephotog · 2002-12-18 12:08 · Score: 1, Flamebait

... a few years back in the merger a friend of mine was murdered by a drunk driver. His webpage was all that was left. It took some time and some emailing but eventually a person started a correspondance and got it all back up.

YMMV but I bet if you just cycle thru and eventually do enough abuse accounts you'll get a response- but be polite.

Happened to me to by soccerisgod · 2002-12-18 12:16 · Score: 1

I got sms on my handy from some strange number. I found out it was emails that were forwarded to my number. Obviously, the old owner of my number set that up and I couldn't switch it off. So I wrote the company those sms came from (t-online), and they ignored me.

I wrote again and again and eventually, I threatened them with a lawsuite, and only after that did the sms stop. Sad but true. My advice: threaten them with a lawsuite. It helped me.

I should add that for some real odd reason, most sms deliveries happened at night. Now I only bought this cell phone to receive alert messages from our webservers. Via SMS. You can imagine how that got me started from sweet REM sleep to total panic in under 1 second ;)))

--
If a train station is a place where a train stops, what's a workstation?

I got 3 Yahoo! pages before receiving any others by ramakant · 2002-12-18 12:28 · Score: 1

I just got a Timex Internet Messenger watch that can receive pages and short emails. In the process of setting it up, the SkyTel customer service representative put me on hold for a few minutes. During that time, I received 3 pages from Yahoo! before I received the system test page to confirm my account was active. I have had the pager for three days and I receive at least one Yahoo! page every 4 hours, and another Yahoo! page at the same time I receive a real page.

My question is - Do they actually think that spamming my watch is going to get me to go to Yahoo!'s site? Holy fsck, this is so annoying!

did you try by jfroebe · 2002-12-18 12:45 · Score: 1

Just calling Yahoo and explain the problem to them?

jason

--
No one has seen what you have seen, and until that happens, we're all going to think that you're nuts. - Jack O'Neil

How to Unsubscribe From Yahoo's Text Messaging by Megna · 2002-12-18 12:58 · Score: 1

Post to AskSlashdot. Include username. Yahoo will take care of the rest.

yahoo email by LinuxCumShot · 2002-12-18 13:02 · Score: 1

how can i get yahoo to stop spamming random address on my domain (like ytdutyrvdy@rabien.com) with foreign language spam?

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-- OMFG = Oh My Floatse Goatse

Verizon has a spam filter by zehn · 2002-12-18 13:24 · Score: 2, Informative

If your phone service is with Verizon then go to http://www.vtext.com and under personalization there is a tab for message blocking in which you can block either a specific address or an entire domain.

Related question by Kaz+Riprock · 2002-12-18 14:22 · Score: 2

I have a cell phone number that must have *just* been reassigned, because I am still getting a ton of calls from numbers that I have no idea who they are. I called a few of them back at the beginning to bitch at the people who were calling "my" number...but most caller IDs were the operator level number of some companies that must have been in contact with the person who previously had my phone...and those operators were WHOLLY unsympathetic.

So, how do I get this to stop? I have a call screening function, but it uses a minute of my airtime to pick up the phone and tell them it's not the old person's number anymore. If I turn it over to my voicemail, I have to wait and see if it was someone important (at a number i didn't recognize) and if they left me a message.

Any ideas?

--
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon

Good Phreaking Reference by radon28 · 2002-12-18 14:26 · Score: 1

was it just an accident that you used 3215551212 as your generic-sample phone number? obviously 555-1212 is the number for information, but how many of you know that 321 was created by the telecom in Florida at the request of Cheshire Catalyst, the legendary phone phreak? it was a reference to the space shuttle 3,2,1 liftoff etc etc. He brags about it on his site. He's also an operator in the area, so if you call that #, you might even reach him.

If you are having rrouble with any business by IBitOBear · 2002-12-18 14:52 · Score: 2

Look at complaining to FTC.gov (obviously if you are a US citizen only 8-). Go to "Consumer Protection" and there are several forms that may apply. The FTC can really work. Yahoo is big business and involved in stealing your money (those messages use up your money or your minutes etc.) so it is Trade Comission business.

My roommate ended up costing Bank Of America a $60,000(US) fine for holding a certified check.

There are petty buraucrats out there waiting to help...

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Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press

Better Business Bureau by Spazmania · 2002-12-18 15:26 · Score: 2

File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Its easy, its free, and they make sure it gets the attention of the right person at the company in question. With such a trivial complaint coming from the BBB, Yahoo'll take care of the problem faster than greased lightning.

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Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.

Instead of whining on slashdot.. by dave256 · 2002-12-18 16:35 · Score: 1

Call your cell phone company.

You're getting SMS alerts, most likely, you're right, from the previous number's owner's "subscription."

And um. How would Yahoo! know when Sprint changed someone's phone number?

Call your cell phone company, they can fix this. Trust me. You could also just change your number.

CHA CHING! by gnovos · 2002-12-18 17:09 · Score: 2

So, you remembering to are store them, right? At your $150 per message per month rate? I hope so! You didn't agree to whatever yahoo's spam policy, so you have no contract with them. Go collect your money, man!

--
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"

Apahty? (as in we don't give a f**k) by amanita_muscaria · 2002-12-18 17:19 · Score: 1

I'm sure you all have seen the joke-pic titled Apathy with the text "If we don't take care of the customer, maybe they'll stop bugging us." It seems like more and more companies has started doing this..

I've done this by Andy+Muldowney · 2002-12-18 17:22 · Score: 3, Interesting

A bank (Nation's Bank I think) called my cell phone one time. They claimed they "must have been given a wrong number" but the lady knew my name, so I wasn't buying it. I have no accounts with them, nor have I ever given out my cell to any companies. So I asked to speak with her manager. I happily told them that it was illegal to solicit to cell phones. They tried to feed me some more BS, so I asked for her manager. I finally got to someone decently high up, and they must have just been too busy to care, because they just said "send us a bill."

So, I itemized the lost minutes, as well as about an hour's worth of lost wages (this was during work) and sent it off. Sure enough, about two weeks later I got a check in the mail.

Needless to say, I didn't cash it...it makes a good story. Plus, my coworkers thought I was crazy when I was on the phone.

YOU FAIL IT! by Regul8or · 2002-12-18 18:14 · Score: 1

Woo? Is that the sound of your surprise when you realize you FAILED at first posting? Failed by 3 others posters nonetheless. What an exceptional FAILURE, get used to it you FAILURE machine!

YOU FAIL IT!

Man... by raehl · 2002-12-18 21:12 · Score: 1

Some of you guys must be really bored.

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paintball

Why no auto-cancel? by Doctor+Hu · 2002-12-18 22:56 · Score: 1

<editorial>Why aren't the text message preferences deleted when the cancellation notices comes thru?</editorial>

Because this wasn't in the original specification, or
Because things have changed since the original deployment and the cancellation mechanism is now broken.

Either way, because the perpetrators don't consider the cancellation mechanism to be important. After all, the effect would be to reduce the numbers of messages the 'service' is handling - which is in the interests of no-one involved with it.

Human nature, I'm afraid. And there's a lot of it about.

simple answer by Lumpy · 2002-12-18 23:32 · Score: 1

change your phone number. Duh....

I used to have FAX calls coming in all the time... call the phone company and say (change my number as I am getting abusive calls on this one for the old phone numbers owner.

Bing... problem solved.

--
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.

Verizon -- same problem by lpq · 2002-12-19 01:03 · Score: 1

They said I could call and ask for credit every time it happened -- just like I can call and ask for 1 minute of credit everytime a call is dropped -- usually only takes 15-20 minutes on hold to get your 20 cent credit....great company, Verizon! Unfortunately they are the best of a bad lot in coverage in my home area. Yeah, I cancelled my text messaging. To fix the drop call problem, I haven't taken the step of cancelling my service...yet.

Had same problem with a pager by carlos_benj · 2002-12-19 01:45 · Score: 1

I just kept after Yahoo until I found someone who cared enough to track down the offending account (it's a simple database query really) and the messages stopped. Don't remember if it was abuse@Yahoo.com or a telephone number I found (I think it was email) but just being persistent and letting them know you've tried repeatedly to contact them regarding the problem will eventually yield results.

The workgroup email list at Intel sending messages to my pager was harder to deal with.

--

As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.

Me TOO by SirCodeAlot · 2002-12-19 02:24 · Score: 1

I called Yahoo directly and tried to get them to resolve this, I ended up cancelling my phone because it cost so much per message. F yahoo, and I hope you didnt get my phone when it was free again if so sorry ;)

I had the same thing happen by bitweever · 2002-12-19 02:55 · Score: 1

Same here, but I couldn't stop getting the alerts, because I had deleted the account (mistakenly thinking that would stop them). I kept sending emails, each about 2 weeks apart. After sending 3 emails and getting no replies, I called them. You won't find their number on their site, I had to google them. I think the number I came back with was (408) 349-3300.

Anyway, dialed them, talked for a bit, and it stopped the next day.

Yahoo should catch the bounce by AlgUSF · 2002-12-19 03:47 · Score: 1

You would think that before you recieved the number there was a period where the number was unused. It would also be safe to say that your wireless provider would bounce the e-mails to that number while the number was out of service. Therefore Yahoo should have taken that bounce and cancelled the service.

--

I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.

Who the fuck modded that flamebait??? by purduephotog · 2002-12-19 05:07 · Score: 2

You think I'm kidding about this? It took nearly 6 months to get everything back in order after they wiped it.

I'd post the page but frankly I don't think it'd be appreciated.

And yes, politeness counts, as well as the links to his death in the newspapers / court cases.

Yahoo abuse reports go to Dave Null by pinheadcelt · 2002-12-19 07:04 · Score: 1

I doubt you'll get any action by emailing abuse@yahoo.com. They're famous for ignoring abuse complaints.

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-- The pinhead celt

Bouncing by Otto · 2002-12-19 07:57 · Score: 2

Yahoo could easily fix this. All they'd have to do is to setup their mailing lists like every other mailing list in the world, and auto remove subscribers whose messages bounce back X times.

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- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.

Re:Bouncing by kevlar · 2002-12-20 09:02 · Score: 2

Thats assuming a bounce would ever occur. Besides, a bounce is hardly a legitimate notice that a phone is not being used. Most providers do not even supply error responses to messages, even if the message is never delivered because the phone is off.

Re:Sue - Its the American Way by csritchie · 2002-12-20 02:39 · Score: 1

I wasn't perpetuating anything. If you wanted to read it that way, it's your business, but don't try and pretend to understand my intentions.

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