Slashdot Mirror
Spammers Start Abusing Cell Phones
slimyrubber writes "Just when you thought that spam couldnt get any worst, Cell phones are becoming the latest target of electronic junk mail, with a growing number of marketers using text messages to target subscribers. Is cell-phone spam likely to evolve into something that big, something approaching the scale of e-mail spam? Not if you help to kill SMS spam where it starts. Hopefully."
I seem to recall that in the US, telemarketing to cellular phones was illegal, as the receiver often pays for it directly.
Wouldn't sms spam fall into the same category?
Is that
(1) It is not easy to filter out, given the majority of people here now only uses phone that cannot be programmed easily (at least, not as easy as using the OE plugins or the MacosX Mail.app)
(2) Usually they are more intrusive - nowadays people carry cell phones around and when you are bugged by SMS spam TOGETHER with important SMS.. it's friggin' bad...
(3) They know where you read it... the positioning system of the GPS/w-cdma networks allow them to track your place...
now what? right - do it with legislation.
For one thing - SMS are limited to 160 characters, and secondly - SMS cost money to send. Granted - even email costs money, but you could send probably several thousand emails of a few kb each for less than US$1. With SMS you're paying a few cents for each individual SMS of max 160chars. Therefore for SMS spam to become a real phenomenon, you would need way higher returns for the messages you send.
Companies won't stop cell phone abuse because it means higher dollars for them. Plus it means they can sell services to block the abuse, which is generally a pattern from regular phone companies selling caller-id, call blocking... etc.
Wherever there's money, there's abuse of power.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
So why can't they implement a similar function for SMS? If the number's not in my phone book, I don't want to hear a tone, and I don't want the message sitting on my phone - just flush it straight away.
Never mind Spamassassin. When's Spammerassassin coming out?
The only way you'll see cell companies scrambling to prevent SMS spam is if their revenues would be adversely affected by not doing so. If cell companies learn that their subscribers are turning their cellphones off when not in use or are cancelling their SMS service altogether, then they they sit up and take notice. Otherwise SMS spam delivery actually helps their bottom line and they won't be inclined to prevent it.
I have received SMS spam, but unlike email, it costs the sender money, thereby limiting the scale of the abuse.
The scam that has been turned up recently over here in the UK has been targetting schoolchildren. You get an SMS saying that someone fancies you, or something like that. You reply, and get hit for a 1.50 ($3) charge. However, the regulations were recently changed to prevent this kind of thing - IIRC, you're not allowed to send an SMS that doesn't explicitly state if the reply is going to cost more than normal.
Spam is in the eye of the beholder. Some people welcome discount offers from Amazon.com in their e-mail, others consider that to be Spam. Your right to have the messages you don't want blocked ends where it starts to interfere with somebody getting messages that they actually want.
Opt-in consent is the best system we have... if you really want to opt-out you should have the blocks set up on the systems you control because clearly an opt-out-by-law system is never going to function.
Because a handful of people with a lot of money like the fact that it exists.
Member of Orkut? Annoyed with spam?
You can just turn off the ringer for SMS I guess, but on my phone at least, you can't disable it completely (that I know).
The big problem with just turning off SMS is that most people use SMS (Or at least, us teenagers do), and there is no reason for the option.
I doubt spamming on cell phones is every gonna become a big problam like regular spam. For the simple reason that with most cell phone providers, it costs money to receive an SMS or MMS message. SPAM is still around cause in the end, the only cost to the receiver is time and just a painful experience. Paying to receive spam is so outrageous that carriers will take the necessary steps to put an end to it, at the risk of loosing their customers.
...first of all, it adds an extra word that has to be put in the already limited SMS message (160 chars).
/.)/
Secondly, does the average teen using SMS want to remember a password for every single person they send SMS messages to?
Thirdly unless you made it a "proper" "secure" password (which would be a bitch to enter with predictive text) it is vulnerable to a simple dictionary based attack.
Now all we need is a huge list for "why your SMS spam prevention technique will not work" (a la smtp one that's always popping up on
I am NaN
yes, the model of receiver pays has got to be the most retarded thing ever.
it makes so little sense its invention must have been motivated purely by desire for profit, bypassing all consideration of anything else.
You'd better look this up: Irony, and then re-read the original /. story content at the top.
Actually I'm glad my cel-phone company does charge for receiving. That means I've got a line on my bill documenting financial damage from the unsolicited message. That's very helpful when filing a small-claims action against the originating company when they won't knock it off. It's also helpful when dealing with the FCC since the cel-phone company and the commissioners can't fob it off as "Oh, but you're not paying for that message." and if they suggest buying an unlimited plan I can respond "Oh, so I should pay more for a service I don't need just to avoid having to pay for someone else's advertising?".
Leave the FCC and the cel-phone companies to argue about how the cel-phone companies are going to pick up the tab and pretty quick the cel-phone companies will do something about the problem at the source.
... copy off of ICQ. My cell phone has a phone book in it. It's easy to add/remove people from it. Give me the ability to say "only accept messages from people in my phone book" and the cell phone SPAM issue is solved. WTF email doesn't work this way, I'll never know.
"Derp de derp."