5 ms·
I am receiving increased SMS spam past week. Is connected to this exploit? Msgs are all different domains with unique ID appended.
by mot0rola 5y ago
I am receiving increased SMS spam past week. Is connected to this exploit? Msgs are all different domains with unique ID appended.
- samsonradu 5y agoMe too, receiving spam job offers with bit.ly links.
- xunn0026 5y agoI too saw one of these. Very odd since I was expecting a note about a job.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y agoDon’t reply to those SMS. Your geolocation can be derived from your reply, even a STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE reply.
- akouri 5y agoCan you explain how this works if you don't click any links?
- TedDoesntTalk 5y agoI read about it on HN some months ago. I don’t recall if it was in comments or an article. But I read the info and sources and was convinced enough at the time. I’m sorry I didn’t save the original info. I’ll try some googling “geolocation from SMS” and see what I can find.
- daenz 5y agoPresumably if they have the number to text to, they already roughly know the geolocation for most people, through the area code.
- jhugo 5y agoOnly in the US (or whole NANP?) Mobile numbers are non-geographic everywhere else that I know of.
- eru 5y agoWell, depends. For example, Singapore's numbers are 'non-geographic' in that sense. But Singapore itself is small enough.
- jhugo 5y agoI mean non-geographic within the country. As far as I know, the US practice of assigning mobile numbers to 'area codes' is unique.
- eru 5y agoYes. I was broadly agreeing with you. Just saying that some countries are small enough that it's essentially the same.
- elkos 5y agoGreek here, mobile phones are non-geographic but used to be service provider specific, but even this practice isn't applicable due to number portability. Landlines used to be geographic but this isn't relevant any more again new to number portability.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y agoThat’s not what I’m talking about. And since number portability and mobile devices became possible, area codes are mostly irrelevant. For example, I’ve lived 2000 miles from the area code of my phone number for probably 10 years now.
- daenz 5y agoThey're not mostly irrelevant. 72% of Americans live in or close to the city that they grew up in. Area code is remarkably accurate.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y agoHere’s the best I could find: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18523417/can-i-retrieve-the-location-of-a-phone-number-with-twilio https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18523417/can-i-retrieve-... (Twilio is awesome by the way)
- mathrawka 5y agoThat information is completely derived from the phone number.
- iJohnDoe 5y agoYes, would like to learn more as well.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y agoI read about it on HN some months ago. I don’t recall if it was in comments or an article. But I read the info and sources and was convinced enough at the time. I’m sorry I didn’t save the original info. I’ll try some googling “geolocation from SMS” and see what I can find.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y agoHere’s the best I could find: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18523417/can-i-retrieve-the-location-of-a-phone-number-with-twilio https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18523417/can-i-retrieve-... (Twilio is awesome by the way)
- nl 5y agoCan you provide a pointer showing how this is supposed to work?
- huntsman 5y agoProbably not. No signs that this is linked to any mass activity.
- ipaddr 5y agoTax time
- jorvi 5y agoHearing Americans regularly complain about SMS and robocall spam still blows my European mind. I haven't received a single spam call or SMS in my life, ever. Back in the 90s and early 2000s the worst that could happen was, say, texting a commercial number to get a polyphone ringtone, and that actually being a subscription. But obviously that is something you have to initiate first, not something passive.
- illiac786 5y agoI live in Germany and I get a lot of spam calls and spam SMS. It's always in waves. Some days I stop answering calls if I don't recognise the number, because its one of these days where Interpol has informwd me already three times that my identity was stolen and I have to give them all my details to fix this ..... They're very patient at Interpol, I keep hanging up on them and they never give up.
- eru 5y agoWhen I have a spammer/scammer on the phone (and I actually picked up), I usually just put my phone on mute and stop talking to them. They waste a bit more time that way before they hang up (without more effort from me).
- ge96 5y agoSide anecdote, I was taking to some sales people and they mentioned this concept of "ringless voicemails" ugh idk why people have no shame.
- eru 5y agoI solve that problem by just not having any voicemail box.
- batch12 5y agoI try to help them out by letting them know that I have been trying to reach them about their car's extended warranty.