05-03-2003, 10:19 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Watch Out for Wireless Spam
"Panelists on the second day of a three-day spam forum sponsored by the Federal Trade Commission agreed Thursday that text-based advertisements, already common in Japan and Europe, are coming to U.S. users of wireless devices. Some of those messages, inevitably, will be spam.
While some panelists said current U.S. laws are inadequate for dealing with wireless spam, members of the cell phone industry said they're already taking steps to avoid the influx of spam that has saturated the wired Internet. Unlike the free-for-all Internet, wireless carriers are treating their networks as private property and are planning to kill off bulk text messages at gateways before they hit customer in-boxes."
I think this is a very real fear. Spam on the desktop is irritating, but considering most people don't pay for bandwidth over their dial-up modem or DSL line, and it takes one button press to delete the spam, it's not going to stop people from using email. But on a mobile device, spam becomes a much bigger problem - most people are paying for bandwidth, and even if you have a flat-rate plan (like I do with Fido), you're still paying with your time. GPRS is quite slow, and if getting a 30 KB HTML spam email is painful. The tools for deleting the messages aren't quite as fast as on the desktop either - and there's no Spamnet for my Pocket PC yet, so I'm very vulnerable to spam.
Will spam stop you from using your mobile device for wireless email?
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05-03-2003, 10:21 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Fortunately (sort of), they're talking about SMS, not 30KB large messages as far as I can tell. Unfortunately, SMS is metered too, and spam can pose lots of problems. :cry:
--janak
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05-03-2003, 10:23 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Janak Parekh
Fortunately (sort of), they're talking about SMS, not 30KB large messages as far as I can tell. Unfortunately, SMS is metered too, and spam can pose lots of problems. :cry:
--janak
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I think spam SMS would piss me off even more, because it's intrusive like a phone call, rather than passive like an email message.
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05-03-2003, 10:45 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 110
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I haven't seen that much of it so far but you're right Jason - spam SMS is VERY intrusive. The worst offenders so far seem to be the networks themselves. :evil:
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05-03-2003, 11:13 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 400
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
Will spam stop you from using your mobile device for wireless email?
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In a heartbeat. 
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05-03-2003, 11:24 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,162
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I have already gotten a spam text message to my cell phone.
The FIRST thing I did after that was call Verizon to have them disable text messaging on my phone.
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05-03-2003, 11:28 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 263
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I use nPop for desktop and PPC, and I carefully select my mail to read and/or save, soon I'll get wireless and I have to ask if nPop or something like that is available to read only titles and a few lines from each message working somehow on the server.
Regards.
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05-03-2003, 11:38 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 354
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Janak Parekh
Fortunately (sort of), they're talking about SMS, not 30KB large messages as far as I can tell. Unfortunately, SMS is metered too, and spam can pose lots of problems. :cry:
--janak
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I think spam SMS would piss me off even more, because it's intrusive like a phone call, rather than passive like an email message. |
I can vouch for that - its very intrusive. I have received quite a few spam SMSs recently which is odd because not many people know my number...
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05-04-2003, 12:19 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 1,185
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Janak Parekh
Fortunately (sort of), they're talking about SMS, not 30KB large messages as far as I can tell. Unfortunately, SMS is metered too, and spam can pose lots of problems. :cry:
--janak
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I think spam SMS would piss me off even more, because it's intrusive like a phone call, rather than passive like an email message. |
I just read something about McDonald's stopping this practice (I think they were doing proximity SMS spam). I'm all for a deal, but I feel real bad for the burger flipper that's working at McDonald's the first time I get a spam SMS. They aren't going to know what to do with me. :evil:
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05-04-2003, 12:25 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 1,185
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Peter Foot
I can vouch for that - its very intrusive. I have received quite a few spam SMSs recently which is odd because not many people know my number...
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Spamming via SMS would seem to be much easier than spamming email accounts. Reason being, you already have a valid domain. You know it's only numbers in the prefix of the email and you have 3 of 9 digits predetermined (Area codes). You only need to go through the 6 remaining digits and Excel can make short work of that.
Hey...I think I'm going to go into the business. Just kidding!
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