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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 think that we will quickly see law suits being filed over this, similar to the one we saw to fax.com. Many cellular companies charge for receiving text messages, and it would be a violation of FCC regulations to initiate such ads when the recipiant is being charged for them. (Also it is illegal for a telemarketer to call a cell phone, because of the charge ensued from having to use minutes).
30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
Score:5, Troll
I was there last year, and the day after I got my cell phone, before I had even given the number out to anyone, I managed to get SMS spam. Porn spam to boot. Needless to say I was both impressed and annoyed.
The cell phone structure in Japan though makes it a bit easier to spam(the carrier I had, KDDI uses your cell # to do SMS). Unlike the US where your cell # area code is based on location, in Japan all cell phones have either 090, 080(and 081 I think) so the spammers just used an SMS equivalent of an autodialer I do believe. Though I never got any SMTP spam while I had the phone...
We already went though fax spam, email spam, telemarketers and of course everyone's favorite - junk in your snail mail box.
I think its time that we come up with a more global view of things. A single list similar to the do-not-call list but that will allow you to get blacklisted for every kind of communications. I know many people have reservations like that spammers will use these lists as a source of valid email addresses, but you can get around that by allowing the user to select which one of their contacts they want on there...
Peter.
here in the uk we've been getting spam through our mobiles for a long time now, many years.
there has also been chainmail too.
I predict this will never catch on. At least not in Europe. Here the sender pays for sent text-messages, which makes the spammer pay big money if he is to spread the word. In adidtion, it is very easy to trace messages wntering the phone-network, and thus it is very easy to catch the offenders.
Each of the major cell phone providers have an e-mail to SMS gateway relaying all messages to [10-digit-number]@[provider's domain] to the appropriate cell phone of it exists on their network.
.001ish% response rate to justify their operations... so any tool this strong is dangerous in the hands of "guess and check" operations.
Not only does that mean that there's only 10 billion possible combinations that can go in that 10-digit-number slot, since all those numbers come in the form [area code]-[exchange]-[4 digits] they can start focusing on the exchanges that have been allocated to wireless providers to get a very high success rate. If you know that 508-335-xxxx belongs to Cingular, you can take a pretty good shot at aiming 10,000 messages at all the combinations of that number on Cingular's SMS domain, and a majority of them will most likely hit devices.
Of course, number portablity now introduces the possiblity that a number is now no longer with the original provider who owned the exchange allocation, but that'd be only a dent in a pretty high success rate to begin with. Remember that spammers need only a
I remember the old Prodigy service had the limited domain of addresses in the form of [four letters][two digits][letter from a-f]@prodigy.com and spammers had a field day of being able to discover such addresses from them being posted on the service and just deducing others.
Virtually all of the spam SMS-messages I get are from phone companies themselves.
My own 'provider' (Vodaphone) broadcasts the occasional multimedia message so I can see how unspeakably wonderful they are, but that is a relatively minor irritant.
Whenever I leave the country - Germany - the local providers all send me messages in German welcoming me to their networks and suggesting ways I can enhance my experience there by dialing certain numbers. You get one of these messages each week (Sunday to Saturday) so a weekend somewhere will generate one message when I get there and another one on Sunday for each network my phone happens to roam into. This is annoying enough when I am not at the wheel, but goes way beyond that when I am driving and expecting a serious message. No, I do not want to pull over and check my mobile every time some cretinous phone company wants me to check out their 'recipe of the week'.
Anything that allows me to whack them with a big stick is welcome by me.
Mielipiteet omiani - Opinions personal, facts suspect.
First the confusion: The article was written in November of 2003, 9 months ago. SMS has been available for at least 8 years (perhaps not under that name) so why does the article talk about "early adopters"?
Second, the shocked part:
I recently started receiving SMS spam on my Nextel phone. I've has SMS and standard email on the phone for at least 5 years and just recently started receiving junk messages on it. At least once a day I'd get some garbled text telling me to call some number in Seattle, WA to purchase a college degree.
The thing that shocked me was that Nextel does not indicate the source of the message on the phone that received it, You just get the text and the date/time stamp it was received.
I called customer service and technical support, both informed me that Nextel there is no way to track the source of such a message (this is blatantly false, they just don't bother to track it), and that there was no way to block such messages by sender. If I didn't want the messages I'd just have to turn off the service all together.
That simply isn't an option as SMS is one of the ways I monitor my systems; ie: all root logins from anyplace other than approved machines get sent to my phone; important client messages get through on SMS when I have my ringer off at night, etc.
In the end all they did was refund my monthly messaging fee.
I finally gave up, called the number that was listed in the messages and threatened criminal and/or civil action if I received any more messages on my cell phone from them.
I haven't received any more junk in the week since that call. In the end I guess I'm out the nickel it cost to call long distance for a minute.
I just can't understand how a company can charge you for incoming messages when they have no way for you to filter them or even know the source of the message. How could they not see anonymous on-way communication as a potential (likely) source of abuse?
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
I'd like a phone that allows SMS only from people in my contacts...
I am getting spam to my mobile phone for, say 3 years. Now it is ok because my phone was stolen, so I have new a fresh number. I live in EU, Czechia. Enjoy, whoever is using that spammy number now!
SHE does throw dice.
In Holland there are cases of people digging ground cables and hiding autodialers.
This was normal POTS and many years ago, I am afraid this trick is also being used.
Add up modern day WiFi and you have autodialers picking up instructions through WiFi channels.
BTW same can be said for RFID, we will have some very disruptive times with "WiFi~Other tech" connections coming years...
The means to interconnect everything will also bring that some people are able to make dozens if not hundreds of connections throughout several different network systems.
Now try to find them, even with sophisticated stuff, time-frames will be the future fight in cracking and defencing.
You will see traveling virusses clinging along on various packet movement then leaving the path and change from internet to cellphone/GSM networks, then again spreading through rouge WiFi channels.
Interesting and very disruptive times...
A lot of people are paying for SMS service. Paying. Some people pay for email as well, but not by the message, and the postal mail is in our taxes... but again we don't pay for each delivered message.
But with many SMS providers do they not have a certain fee for a certain number of messages? In effect these spam messages would then be eating in to the allotted # of SMS use you paid for. I don't like that.
I don't know the laws, and I don't care to really because if they don't protect you from this (just referring to the US right now), then I don't want to hear about the laws.
Thank god i haven't received any spam shit yet.
Presently here, but not there.
In order to text message me on my cell phone, you must include my nickname enclosed in brackets -- ie: (AnimeFreak). That way spammers have a harder time spamming me.
My GSM/GPRS provider included it in their service, so I made use of it.
Yup, after about 1.5 years of no spam, suddenly, I started to receive SMS messages in spanish! I called Verizon and told them that since they were just a dozen or so junk messages, I was igonring them, but that they should remove the 10cent per message charge from my bill.
The Verizon droid told me that she would 'enhance' my service to a $2.99 per month charge where I would be able to receive 'unlimited' SMS messages!
To make a long story short, I got those charges removed but decided to remove the SMS option from the cellphone because there is no winning when the cellphone company colludes with the spammers.
most of the time, my phone won't even ring if the caller's not in my phone book.
This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I have a cell phone for emergencies (and general communication). If my Son gets run over and his Mom is calling me from a hospital, your idea means I'd never know about when she tried calling. There's no way to type in all the possible numbers of someone / ANYone that *could* possibly call - and have them be VERY important calls at that.
I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
Per annecdote, in the six years that I've owned a cell phone I have received maybe three or four SMS advertisements (excluding, at the start, opt-out 'promotions' from my provider). I replied once and got an error telling me the number was non-existant; exactly what I was testing for.
I work for a company that's actually produced a product to block mobile spam at the carrier. We've got a system in production already, and the volumes of block spam influx are horrifying. Beyond all conventional wisdom (the wisdom that says providers will turn a blind eye to reap profits), some providers are actually beginning to contact us about the product, so there might be some small hope.
All premium rate mobile phone SMS services in the UK will respond to a reply entitles "STOP" from August 1st. Just send the word STOP to them and they are now obliged to stop.
See this BBC new story for more details.
If they're persistant, forward the message to "VSPAM" if on Vodafone or "SPAM" if on Orange and they'll investigate and pass on to ICSTIS.
Finally, sign up to the Telephone Preference Service to stop unsolicited marketing calls and SMS.
T
--
Not speaking for my employers in any way
If a square is really a rhombus, why aren't all triangles purple?
I don't live in the States anymore, so it is hard for me to speak from first hand experience as to what its current SMS state is - but in 1999 and 2000 I could send an e-mail to "phonenumber@phoneprovider.gateway.com" and it would see if that user had SMS capabilities on their service and if so would send it out to them.
I used it to send myself automated reminders and data via my computer - I also used it to harass my friends via e-mail.
Do these things still exist? - I forget the servers that were used, but it was something along the lines of "messaging.sprintpcs.com" or something, and then the phone number before the @.
If they do still exist, then it is just a matter of sending out your spam to every number in that range. Since you know fixed area codes of sorts (not entirely valid on cell phones, but there is still the concept that not every number is used), it limits the number space that you would have to move through.
For instance you know that "0000000000@whatever) is not valid, but "617###0045@whatever" is much more likely to be valid, assuming "###" is a proper series used by the provider in question.
(I can't used fixed examples since I am not as familiar with them now as I once was)
Even if they turned off the open side of it (meaning any e-mail sent to that), there is still the web access side - there was a web interface that would let subscribers send data via a web page to any enabled phone number - even on other platforms.
If you do a search, there are Perl modules and such out there to automate this as well.
You can even do it via AIM/iChat.
I have talked about it to some extent on my spam blog in the past - but I don't want to talk too in depth about it and then make it that much easier for someone that may have not had that idea before.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
I don't get this.. Nothing in your post make any sense.
"If I can see who is messaging me I can choose to be charged or not." -uh? It's the sender who pays.
"I'm sorry, SMS may be neat but when I first got the sales pitch about including it in my service I laughed right in that poor salespersons face." -Why wouldn't you want SMS? It's really great. I use it for everything. One of my servers go down. *bip* I get an SMS telling me which server has problems. My GF needs to tell me something but I can't get to the phone. *bip* An SMS. How can you make it 'more intelligent'? It's simple, it works and it is really usefull. How can anything beat that?
Not entirely true. Call18866 offer calls to UK landlines (from within the UK) at 0.5p/min any time (that's under US$0.01/minute), and most of Western Europe, USA and Canada at 1p/minute. That's without hefty connection charges or monthly service charges. Or, if you don't want to sign up to anything, Telediscount and Telestunt are well worth checking out. My gf is American, and the Telediscount service has saved me a small fortune in phone bills.
-- Soruk
It would be neat if this could somehow be cross-linked with the address book on the phone, so that one of the criteria could be "sender is in my address book." Otherwise I guess you'd have to maintain the address book in more than one place.
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!