4 ms·

I think you're downplaying this. The illegitimate use of the address book is being masked by a legitimate use - even if permission is asked for it will likely b

by pacaro 14y ago

I think you're downplaying this. The illegitimate use of the address book is being masked by a legitimate use - even if permission is asked for it will likely be granted. What is essentially impossible to control except through manual app verification processes (and very hard even then) is what is done with the data once the app has access to them. As a total aside, if you are an AT&T customer you can just forward SMS spam to 7726 (SPAM) and they take care of it - I'm not affiliated with AT&T (just a customer) and I wish they would publicize this stuff more.

ceejayoz 14y ago
Not just AT&T, hundreds of GSM operators agreed to support 7726. How they react to reports probably varies, though. Verizon apparently supports, as well.
unfasten 14y ago
Thanks for the information about reporting spam text messages, I had never heard about it. I just received some spam text the other day and ended up reporting it through the FCC, but reporting straight to your mobile operator on the phone is much nicer. ceejayoz is right about Verizon also supporting this feature (I just reported the spam message I had from the other day). Via https://community.verizonwireless.com/message/696743#696743 https://community.verizonwireless.com/message/696743#696743 : From MikeS1_VZW We have heard our customers on this, and we have launched a new program to help with SPAM. Take one (or several) of the SPAM messages and forward it to 7726 (which spells SPAM). This is a new process. Once you forward the message to 7726, you will get a reply text message asking the identity of the SPAM sender (the "From" address in the SPAM message you received). Once received, you will get a "Thank-you" message from the 7726 number. We will investigate on the back end. The messages you send to and receive from the 7726 number are free of charge. This is a brand new program we are testing, and it just started on 09/1/11. Please make this common practice when receiving SPAM messages. This is not to be confused with alerts though. If you get alerts (something you signed up for), you should reply STOP to the message received before going the whole 7726 route.
- nathan_long 14y ago
  Great info, but given that carriers are paid for every message I receive, I doubt their commitment to fighting text spam. Here's what I want: a whitelist. If I want to add you to my whitelist, I put my phone into "receiving" mode. I get your text, confirm adding you, then go back into normal mode, where texts from anyone not on the list are rejected and I don't pay for them.
  - uxp 14y ago
    AT&T has a whitelist feature. It's $4.99 per month per subscriber and can allow up to 30 approved numbers to send SMS messages to your phone. Careful what you wish for. It might end up being implemented as an expensive and useless marketing ploy.
    - nathan_long 14y ago
      Expensive, yeah. It should be free, actually; my whole gripe is that I don't want to pay to receive messages I didn't even want. It doesn't help if I have to pay not to receive them. But it does sound useful. And if it gets mindshare, competition could make it cheaper or free.
  - chrisbolt 14y ago
    It would be nice if phones had an option to treat text messages differently if the number isn't in your phone book. I wouldn't care about text message spam so much if it went to a spam folder and didn't alert like a regular text message.
    - pacaro 14y ago
      I think you just described how Facebook handles email... But I agree with you for the most part a distinction between known senders and unknown senders would be great. The only exception to this that I can think of personally, is for things like the Google 2-factor auth messages which appear to be sent from random numbers (in addition to being random numbers!).
    - 14y ago
techinsidr 14y ago
I agree -- more people need to be aware of the Mobile spam reporting, it's actually quite cool.
gurkendoktor 14y ago
I think it's just a very fine hair to split that this is malware yet everything before wasn't. This software does not actively do anything else than many apps on the store. It does not contain any malicious code (by itself). Pretty much every app with ads uploads as much information about you as it can. Is broadcasting SMS spam to the gathered data what makes an app malware?

by pacaro 14y ago

ceejayoz 14y ago

Not just AT&T, hundreds of GSM operators agreed to support 7726. How they react to reports probably varies, though. Verizon apparently supports, as well.

unfasten 14y ago

Thanks for the information about reporting spam text messages, I had never heard about it. I just received some spam text the other day and ended up reporting it through the FCC, but reporting straight to your mobile operator on the phone is much nicer. ceejayoz is right about Verizon also supporting this feature (I just reported the spam message I had from the other day). Via https://community.verizonwireless.com/message/696743#696743 https://community.verizonwireless.com/message/696743#696743 : From MikeS1_VZW We have heard our customers on this, and we have launched a new program to help with SPAM. Take one (or several) of the SPAM messages and forward it to 7726 (which spells SPAM). This is a new process. Once you forward the message to 7726, you will get a reply text message asking the identity of the SPAM sender (the "From" address in the SPAM message you received). Once received, you will get a "Thank-you" message from the 7726 number. We will investigate on the back end. The messages you send to and receive from the 7726 number are free of charge. This is a brand new program we are testing, and it just started on 09/1/11. Please make this common practice when receiving SPAM messages. This is not to be confused with alerts though. If you get alerts (something you signed up for), you should reply STOP to the message received before going the whole 7726 route.

nathan_long 14y ago
Great info, but given that carriers are paid for every message I receive, I doubt their commitment to fighting text spam. Here's what I want: a whitelist. If I want to add you to my whitelist, I put my phone into "receiving" mode. I get your text, confirm adding you, then go back into normal mode, where texts from anyone not on the list are rejected and I don't pay for them.
- uxp 14y ago
  AT&T has a whitelist feature. It's $4.99 per month per subscriber and can allow up to 30 approved numbers to send SMS messages to your phone. Careful what you wish for. It might end up being implemented as an expensive and useless marketing ploy.
  - nathan_long 14y ago
    Expensive, yeah. It should be free, actually; my whole gripe is that I don't want to pay to receive messages I didn't even want. It doesn't help if I have to pay not to receive them. But it does sound useful. And if it gets mindshare, competition could make it cheaper or free.
- chrisbolt 14y ago
  It would be nice if phones had an option to treat text messages differently if the number isn't in your phone book. I wouldn't care about text message spam so much if it went to a spam folder and didn't alert like a regular text message.
  - pacaro 14y ago
    I think you just described how Facebook handles email... But I agree with you for the most part a distinction between known senders and unknown senders would be great. The only exception to this that I can think of personally, is for things like the Google 2-factor auth messages which appear to be sent from random numbers (in addition to being random numbers!).
  - 14y ago

techinsidr 14y ago

I agree -- more people need to be aware of the Mobile spam reporting, it's actually quite cool.

gurkendoktor 14y ago

I think it's just a very fine hair to split that this is malware yet everything before wasn't. This software does not actively do anything else than many apps on the store. It does not contain any malicious code (by itself). Pretty much every app with ads uploads as much information about you as it can. Is broadcasting SMS spam to the gathered data what makes an app malware?