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SMS Spam

SMS messaging is getting more and more popular, especially here in the U.K. In the year 2000 over 6 billion text messages were sent, in 2001 over 12 billion and the numbers from the first few months of 2002 show the same massive growth. With over 50 million text messages being sent a day the sector is soon to become the largest form of communication, far outstripping e-mail and snail mail.

With such enormous popularity the marketers were bound to catch on eventually to instantly and cheaply reach huge numbers of people, and indeed they have. The growth of commercial SMS messages is exponential, with legitimate companies such as Sainsbury's using them for all kinds of purposes, including recruitment and publicity.

The use of Short Message Service (SMS) text messages, for marketing is obviously an attraction to businesses because it is cheaper than standard snail mail marketing, which often lands up in most people's waste paper bins, whereas SMS text messages have to be read. In a similar way as e-mail advertising it requires very little infrastructure and organisation at the sending end, unlike postal based services.

There are two kinds of commercial SMS messages, solicited and unsolicited, if they are solicited messages you selected to receive them and they can be a valuable tool for you, bringing information when and where you want it.

If you are receiving unsolicited SMS messages Vodafone recommend that you contact the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) at the TPS Registration Site which allows you to register your number so that unsolicited and unlawful calls can not be made to you number. This is a fair indication of the misunderstandings in the industry, as the telephone preference service is not there to stop you getting unsolicited SMS messages.

In fact in the U.K. the sending of unsolicited SMS messages is covered under the same legislation as junk faxes, and therefore an offence. Under Government legislation introduced on 1 May 1999 it is unlawful to send an unsolicited sales and marketing fax or SMS to an individual (which includes consumers, sole traders and except in Scotland partnerships) without their prior consent, something which even the big telecoms companies seem blissfully unaware of.

The telephone preference service has recently come under scrutiny itself, after numbers registered with the TPS and used for no other purpose received unsolicited messages. It has been hypothesised that unscrupulous companies are passing lists of numbers to the TPS to get them 'validated' - if an answer is received to say that the number is registered with the TPS then it is 'live' and sending a message to it will be almost certain to pay off.

There are companies which offer you the chance to get paid to receive commercial messages, providing targeted marketing to the advertiser and a payment to the recipient. One example of this is Dynamic SMS, www.dynamicsms.com.au, who offer users the chance to get paid to see adverts selected based on their registered interests.

Until companies start to realise their obligations and enforce the rules it seems unlikely that there will be an easy way to stop SMS spam with the exception of typing *35*(password - the default is 1111)*15# into your handset which will stop you receiving SMS completely, or complaining directly to companies about their unethical advertising. Both Sainsbury's Mobile and Virgin Wines were forced to offer public apologies after trusting a disreputable marketing company who then sent out unsolicited communications on their behalf - and if recipients had not complained then they would not even have known.

SMS Scams

Of course, the SMS marketplace does not just offer employment for spammers; con artists can find a home there too. More and more mobile networks, like Vodafone, are offering reverse charge SMS services that let a user be charged up to several pounds for incoming SMS messages. The idea is to let their users make very small payments, called micro payments, for services with their mobile quickly and easily. To authenticate the system, and before a charged message can be sent, a certain message must be sent to a network 'short code', a telephone number consisting of just 4 digits which can only be accessed on that particular network. The con artists will do anything to get you to send a message to this number, including sending sexy messages that pretend to be from a girlfriend, or urgent messages claiming that a loved one is sick. They play on the same human weaknesses that made the Melissa and Love Bug viruses so successful. As soon as you have sent the authentication to them they are free to send you as many messages as they like, costing over a pound each.

Of course as soon as a network has proof that such a scam is operating they close it down, but in the meantime many innocent users have been duped out of money, and whilst the problem is bad for pay as you go users, who may loose al the credit on their phone, for contract users with no spending limits in place the problem can be horrendous.

Again there is no way to stop getting these scam messages without blocking all SMS coming to your phone, or moving to a network like Orange with currently has no reverse charge system in place (although it has plans to introduce one soon). If neither of these ideas seems attractive to you then be careful to check the number that the message came from before hitting reply on your handset.

Mobile Phone Viruses

Until recently there has only been one know mobile phone exploit, by sending a certain message to Nokia handsets a crash could be caused. The latest software versions (available free from Nokia service centres) are not affected by the bug, and turning the phone off and then on deletes the offending message anyway. Software however is getting more and more complex, with the next generations off phones using software like Stinger (from Microsoft) and Symbian (from Palm) to provide palmtop like functionality. This software is a direct development of PDA software, developed from experiences with Pocket PCs and Palm devices.

There are already viruses for the pocket PC and palm operating system 'in the wild' and the problem is bad enough that a virus checker, pc-cillan, has been adapted to work on mobile devices. Without a doubt these viruses will be adapted to work on the next generation of phones, and with the rise of always on data solutions to next generation phones, like GPRS and UTMS, the exposure presented to crackers is getting larger.

These problems however are being tackled at the network end, with firewall implementation from the networks, but it remains to see how big a problem it will be. Sensible use, the same as you would apply to e-mail and your computer will soon have to apply to mobile phones, and as always how exposed you are depends on the decisions you make.

Where To Make A Complaint

Report suspected Premium Rate SMS scams to OFCOM.

Report SMS spam (as well as unsolicited direct marketing telephone calls, faxes, automated calls, picture / video messages or e-mail) to the Information Commissioner.

Follow this link for information about the US National Do Not Call Registry >>

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SMS Spam