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Net Phone Customers Brace For 'VoIP Spam'
XaviorPenguin writes "If you think that Spam in your e-mail inbox is bad, wait until VoIP gets huge! According to a News.CNet.com story, your voice mail box on your Net Phones may be cluttered with ads for Viagra. '"The fear with VoIP spam is you will have an Internet address for your phone number, which means you can use the same tools you use for e-mail to generate traffic," said Tom Kershaw, a vice president at security specialist VeriSign. "That raises automation to scary degrees."'
If you think that is scary, you know the Do-Not-Call list that is out by the FTC, yeah, um, people with Net Phones may not be affected by this list and spammers/telemarketers may take this advantage for themselves. "
Does this mean I'll be getting calls from "barely legal" teens requesting my attendance in viewing them for the low price of $29.99 a month?
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What, this is suprising? People using new communications methods to advetise to the public? What on Earth is the world coming to.
Oh well, I'll still with my text spamed mobile. And those phonecalls I get, asking me to upgrade my phone. Oh.
Well so far Vonage is great.
Ive been a subscriber for 3 years and have not recived a single sales call.
I belive I have recived about 10 calls that got the wrong number.
If only CAN-SPAM were 1/10th as effective as the do-not-call list. It's strange: I didn't sign up for the do-not-call list, but the number of telemarkters calling has still declined rather sharply. On the other hand, spammers, in the face of legislation, have apparently decided it would be better to send more spam than ever before.
concrete5: a cms made for marketing, but strong enough for geeks.
Well, same possibilities for spamming, means same possibilities for Spamfilters. I know, it's only a cold comfort ;).
My Blog: "sum it up - News, emotions and science"
hmm, maybe we can get the spammers to play a song in the background during their spam messages...then RIAA will be all over them!
Moo.
I'm not sure if I'm an exception to the case, but I never get any spam. If I get a voip address, I'll just use the same methods I do now. Create a dummy account for signups, be careful how I post my address on the internet, etc.
Here's the wide open hole in VoIP phone service:
Every VoIP phone that has a real-world phone number also has an SIP address that can be used to send calls to it as well... If those addresses get captured and traded around like e-mail addresses, then all a tele-spammer would need is the bandwidth and they're all set to call you with a spam-like ad.
And the Do Not Call Registry law doesn't even apply because it registers phone numbers, not SIP addresses. So that and any other telephone-based law isn't going to work here.
If you think that is scary, you know the Do-Not-Call list that is out by the FTC
The FCC cannot regulate the entire world - just the US.
Spammers can operate from other countries without worrying about FCC's do-not-call lists (or using compromised boxes for that matter).
My pics.
None of this would happen if everybody just went out and bought herbal viagra and penis enlargement kits. If we all bought some then they wouldn't need to spam us so much.
So buy! Buy! Buy!!
I can't wait to find out how Nigerians pronounce "i HaVe A gReAt BuSiNeSs PrOpOsAl FoR U"
If you look at CNET's coverage of VoIP on their web site, you'll notice a major trend: FUD.
With that in mind, I take this with a grain of salt. I have Vonage and I disabled my voicemail the first day I got it. Why? I own an answering machine which my wife is somewhat attached to and to be honest, so am I.
If you don't like a function, just turn it off!
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[sig]darkfus[/sig]
I don't understand why the "do not call list" does not apply to this technology. Can anyone explain, please? I mean, from a legal pov.
1011010110 1101011010 1101101011 0110101101 0110110101
For some reason I think your wife will disagree...
You must be new here.
But VoIP systems are perfect counterparts to address books. My mobile phone includes the "Call Filter" app (PalmOS), which directs calls to different coded rings (eventually a sample of the caller saying their name), or voicemail. In a just country, the FTC would require unsolicited commercial messages, in any medium, to include a "Reply-To:" data field, registered in an online database. Fraud/spoofing/omission would be subject to a $20 fine, *per message*, split between the caller and the government as damages/fines.
--
make install -not war
I call from a "non-existent" phone number (a number I have which I simply always route to BUSY). That's the number sales droids get in stores, is on my checks, etc. The same number either line shows for CID (but only one line can do ANI as this #).
Private callers learn to dial their appropriate * code -- otherwise they go do the Boulder, CO time clock.
Out-Of-Area callers, 1-000, 1-700 and other assorted numbers go to the US Naval Observatory time clock.
My phone almost never rings with sales calls. Almost. You'll always get that cold caller (and VoIP makes doing this cheap). There's always been a cheap way though and those that DO get through are treated, well, rudely. It's "my" phone line.
Of course I'm the one that gave up on POTS now decades ago -- did similar BUSY, CID type "tricks" with ISDN forever with the added benefit (like VoIP) that "data lines" are automatically unpublished _and_ unlisted. As usual -- the first hint that I get that my "phone company" is selling my number and they lose a customer.
VoIP is a doubled edged sword for the sales attempts IMHO.
Look at it this way more people are likely to end up with VoIP phones in the future than are likely to really bother with E-mail. When John Doe Consumer starts getting racy, obscene and highly offensive voice mails inviting him to "gain 4 inches now" or "view barely legal teens" every day he's going to care a lot.
And yes spammers will try to set up operations overseas but many of the countries that tolerate the spammers now have less freedoms in general and sexual mores are more government enforced. They can ignore millions of porn E-mail spam easily, but when they have their citizens getting racy voice mail (even if they can't understand the words I'm sure the spammers will leave nothing to the imagination in tonal deliverance) or they end up with egg on their face for tolerating people sending things through them that would be illegal for their citizens they'll end up cutting off the easy access for spammers.
Frankly the only thing that'll end the reign of terror spammers have on the net at large today will be them shooting themselves in the foot by going too far. I can't wait for it to happen, but until then they can send all they want to my spam trap addresses, my Baysian filters love to be fed. :)
we need to reanimate George Peppard. Second, we need some no non-sense delta force guys who are sick and tired of being offered brest and penis enhancement through their e-mail. Then we'll need BA's van. Next, a small video production crew. Then we can enjoy the webcast vicious slayings of spammers all over the globe, complete with dramatic and requiset "shakey cam."
We will pay for the operation with discrete and sensible banner ads for Black Talon ammunition, Baretta, Colt, and Remmington arms, find a person services, discount night vision gear, and subscription offers for guns and ammo, military surplus auctions, and of course the brand placement in each episode.
Far from being intractable, I think such an approach would solve the whole unsolicited bulk email problem very quickly.
The near zero cost of communication is the root cause of spam (and the reason the net is the best of places and worst of places). Until the recipient, who bears the high labor cost of coping with spam, can levy a charge on the sender, who bears near zero cost for mass-produced messages, spam will persist and proliferate.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Existing VoIP services are through proprietary protocols controlled by the host companies (Vonage, Skype, etc...). Although the connections are made IP-to-IP, these clients are typically only built to accept connections that have been verified through the host network first. Although there have been problems with, for instance, instant message spam in the past, it is quite rare now (in my experience). Forging a message on a private network is much harder than on a public one.
-Joe
Compared to what other providers of similar services?
When I started receiving junk e-mail around 1995, I had been using e-mail for some ten years already. My great experience of a spam-free past did absolutely nothing to reduce the amount of junk I received later; it rather became more annoying to me in comparison.
Note that the article warns about future rather than past or present advertising. Your experience may be comforting to you, but it doesn't sound very relevant.
A lot of the cheaper plans offered by VoIP companies, like cell phones, have a certain number of minutes you have per month. Some of the companies, foolishly, make you listen to an entire voicemail message before deleting it (in the cell phone world Cingular does this too), now if you have even 5% or 10% the amount of voicemail spam that you do email spam and you're forced to listen to entire messages before deletion this is going to take up a pretty significant chunk of your minutes... that's bad bad news.
sig.
If the VoIP world goes the way of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) then everyone will need to use a service provider to assist in routing calls outside of a business network. That provider will assign a charge, albeit a small one, to each call. Unlike sending spam email virtually free of charge, making 100,000 VoIP spam calls will cost a tidy sum of money - far beyond the purses of any 2-bit spammer!
Secondly, in a SIP environment, any call needs to go via a SIP registration server so that the caller is able to get information on what devices and messaging services the called party has available as well as obtaining the called party's IP address (remembering of course that if the called party is mobile, the IP address he or she is registered to is rapidly changing anyway!) I have no doubt that it's a relatively simple task to provide some connection blocking at the SIP server so that it's possible to create a blacklist of callers that will never get a connection.
Sure, I've no doubt that telemarketers will make use of VoIP but while both telemarketers and spammers should burn in hell, telemarketers target specific individuals (based on information they have on that individual that makes them believe they can sell something to him or her) and therefore generate far less junk traffic than spammers.
Personally, this is just FUD spread by a bunch of "think-they-know-it-all" security cowboys out to make a fast buck.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
I wonder if this will force the voice recognition software industry to finally deliver on it's promises of functional voice recognition to combat this type of spam. :)
sig.
I own an answering machine which my wife is somewhat attached to and to be honest, so am I.
Answering machine bondage, that's a new one. How do you attach the handcuffs ?
The Internet's nature is peer to peer - 20050301_cs_profs.pdf
At least an inbox full of VM's doesnt interrupt your dinner, or make you come running in from mowing the lawn to be told your windows could be more energy efficient.
OTOH, Unsolicited anything is the suck. Hey Seller-of-Things, guess what, I have PLENTY of ways to get in touch with you if I want something. Thanks.
"Sig free in '03!"
Not sure about regular calls but for voice mails, since an ivr type service is picking up, it could easily prompt the person to type in a combination of numbers to leave a message something a broadcast program can't easily figure out.
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
FYI: On my Cingular phone, 7 is the erase button after a message, but if you push 7-7 during a message it will stop playback and erase it. Don't know if it works on all phones/plans or just mine.
"Press #### to talk to matt." And anyone who doesn't?
Albuquerque PC
Spam is in the same class of social irritants as grafitti. (il mio Italiano no esta bonno).
It is someone hijacking a lightly guarded public place for their own benefit. The physical area that gets defaced by grafitti is too low in value to hire a full-time guard to prevent its defacement. The shitperson can deface the area quickly with paint and not get caught, providing a free advertising medium for himself and his (always a male) message.
Public law enforcement officers say that the faster an area that has been defaced by grafitti is cleared of the defacement, the less likely it is to be re-vandalized. I'm not sure if this applies to spam as well. However I do believe that spam in the same social catagory as grafitti.
Spammers, like grafitti vandals, are assholes. To accept as legitimate advertisers is only to ask to deluged with endless amounts of worthless spam. The legal arguments that are used against vandals should be refined and tested in court against spammers.
And, yes, grafitti vandals are assholes too. They aren't artists. They have the ability to create art but they don't. They foul public places. People who claim that grafitti vandals are artists are assholes too. So are the people who defend spammers as 'new media' advertisers.
Actually, I'm currently researching 2nd-hand (maybe even new) small PBXs & associated phones. If you burn an extension for your front, rear, & garage door remote controls, you're still left with five valid internal lines to which you can connect a phone. You also get paging, instead of yelling throughout the house.
Once you have that, you just make sure you assign 4-digit extensions and don't mention what they are on your outgoing message (also disable the 0 for general mailbox option). Voila - anyone who doesn't know a valid extension can't get through. I doubt this will be common enough anytime soon that you'll get wardialing telemarketers trying all the possible 2-5 digit extensions in hopes of a hit.
I'm sure once VoIP is even more common, everybody and his brother will be putting out a package for your PC to do the same thing.
I live in France but not speaking French I answer the phone in English - works almost every time!
I figure that it could work in reverse in other countries, answer in French in the US and that'll totally confuse any spa^^^telemarketeer.
Of course there could be the odd person who speaks French in which case answering in Dutch will work even better.
Goed middag, hoe gaat het?
But of course if all else fails you can totally confuse them (and get extra geek points) if you speak to them in Klingon:
SoH DichDaq Hegh!
GET YOUR WEAPONS READY! --DR.LIGHT
None of this would happen if everybody just went out and bought
Or, say, if everybody responded without buying -- you know, visit that nice little website they linked in their message (say, 2,000,000 times a day). Or go ahead, call the number they left. String the salesman out for 20-30 minutes.
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
Well this is interesting.
Looks like it's time for homes to have small computers which runs a small voip routing server to handle calls of various natures:
Sounds like an open source project to me.
Also a great way to gather the numbers of known spammers and distribute a list of said numbers/ip addresses for blocking.
The phone companies, as noted in the artcle, thinking that it isn't a big deal is basically shrugging responsibility for something which they should take more seriously. Given the nature of phone spam, email spam, and phone sms/messaging spam, to think that voip spam is a low priority target is pretty slipshod.
*shrugs* Looks like voip filtering will just be an extension to the massive spam filtering already being done. Wish I could send a bill to the spammers for the extra work they are basically forcing me to do. :(
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