[Telecom] Cell phone text message spam

I received a spam text message on my cell phone. (I did not open it). I called the carrier who said they'd waive the message fee. But do they do anything to trace such messages back and put a stop to them? They didn't seem to care.

They offered to put a block on receiving text messages. As it happens, I don't do any texting at all, but I'm not sure I want to deny myself a feature in case I would want or need to use it in the future.

Are unsolicited text messages to a cell phone illegal? Isn't that like sales calls to a cellphone which are illegal?

Could anyone who is knowledgeable explain spam texting rules ? Thanks!

Reply to
hancock4
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It's the new Spam of 2008. My wife and I have already blocked our cell phones. We are old-fashioned folks; we just make and receive voice calls with voice mail for backup.

Reply to
Sam Spade

This is a good argument foir 'caller pays', such as we have here in Europe.

Until / unless we get swamped with junk-texts, they won't be any more troublesome to delete than the occasional junk-email that gets through the spam filters.

cheers,

Henry

Reply to
Henry

On Thu, 3 Jan 2008, Henry posted:

I get more spam on my European cell phone service than on my US or Canadian services.

Since many (not all) North American customers pay for incoming SMS, SMS spam is illegal (this doesn't include your own carrier spamming you with a "free SMS") here.

Unlike European carriers, North American carriers have STRONG motivation to be aggressive in stopping SMS spam. Some European carriers (e.g., Vodafone) are active in anti-spam efforts, but they have a bit of a conflict of interest because they are getting paid by the spammers to deliver the spam.

North American consumers are not all shy about calling their carrier and turning off SMS entirely, or at least getting the charge for the spam taken off their bill. The cost to the carrier to deal with these requests greatly outweighs any profit from delivering the spam (not to mention the loss of revenue when the customer disables SMS).

The other side of the coin is that free email/SMS gateways (and services to give you free weather, news, etc. alerts) are still the rule in North America. This presents a challenge to the carriers, as delivery of free alerts look a lot like a spam run ("it's pink, but it's ham instead of spam"). The carriers have long ago blocked bulk email from entities not known to be be free alert carriers.

On Verizon, and perhaps other carriers, it is possible to change your email address at the gateway from your phone number to something else. This prevents getting hit by spam runs that send to random phone numbers.

-- Mark --

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Reply to
Mark Crispin

Oh it's coming. I'd love to see caller pays in the U.S. That would make it worth having a cell phone because it would cut down on the bull#$%^ calls.

Reply to
T

Junk textx have been around for a while; there's case law suggesting that they're illegal under the TCPA.

What rock have you been living under? The only reason you're not swamped with junk texts is that European mobile carriers filter like crazy against bulk text sources. There's zillions of ways to sneak SMS into the system without paying retail prices.

Reply to
John L

I get very little spam on my phone, Srint allows you to set your user name on each phone that then becomes the same on your e-mail address. I change min a while back because a friend of mine put my e-mail address on his long e-mail jokes he would send out, I have unlimited data on my plan so it does not matter to me.

Reply to
Steven Lichter

More like its already come and gone...at least in the U.S.

Almost twenty years ago, a study showed 70% of U.S.callers would not place a call to a cellphone if they had to pay.

AT&T tried to float the idea twenty years ago. The fact that you don't see it now shows its not going to happen.

Likewise with the Metro Mobile CTS project in Phoenix in 1986 with a one percent higher churn rate that normal cellular users.

Reply to
DTC

I do not allow my email correspondants to use my address for any group mailing purposes. I don't want my mailbox cluttered up with stupid jokes, videos, political propaganda, etc. I think it helps keep away spam.

Reply to
hancock4

Americans expect free local calls. If you think you are so important that people will pay to call your mobile phone, you're wrong. (If you disagree, get yourself a 900 number.)

As has been noted many, many, many times here before, since North American mobile subscribers care about the costs of all of their calls rather than just outbound calls, North American mobile carriers compete on actual price and the mobile calls in the US and Canada cost about half what they cost other places.

Regards, John Levine, snipped-for-privacy@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be,

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ex-Mayor "More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly.

Reply to
John L

In some cases the caller does pay for the call. I had a phone that had an out of area number so anyone that called it had to pay at least the Toll Charges.

Reply to
Steven Lichter

Well, it's working then, isn't it?

cheers,

Henry

Reply to
Henry

Well..true, everyone knows that a long distance call is extra. but that's really not along the same line of thought of CPP.

Reply to
DTC

Eh? What century are you from? A LOT of us have unlimited LD and unlimited Local. Some call it "VoIP."

Reply to
Rick Merrill

Well, that was meant in the sense that you know its a billable LD call

On the other hand, I don't think consumer grade VoIP is that reliable in the sense of consistent call quality compared to a hard wired call.

And to be honest..with the unlimited long distance plans that telcos are offering now for prices less than a paid subscription service (better QOS than free services), I can't see commercial VoIP providers successfully competing in the intra and inter state market. They might fair better with international calling, but THEN you have the problems with state owned telcos that block competitive VoIP.

10 ISPs and countries known to have blocked VoIP:
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Reply to
DTC

Well, there is really no difference of "grade" between business and consumer Once the packets get on the internet.

Yes, everything has startup problems, but clarity and reliability are as good as they could be. (VoIP depends on cable; phone units need UPS)

Best feature is that phone messages are kept on the suppliers computer, not on my answering machine.

QoS is normally governed by the Telephone Adapter.

Reply to
Rick Merrill

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