SMS SPAM

John <[email protected]> wrote:
> Interesting.
>
> Can you elaborate?
>
> How does a cellular company's system know the difference from a 'true'
> SMS message versus an internet based message?

Internet messages must be delivered through a mail server at some point.
SMS messages are delivered through SMS gateways. Completely different software.

Verizon lets you sign onto vtext.com and block messages sent from that website
or through e-mail but you can still get true SMS from another phone. Sprint
should be able to do it too, but you may need to escalate to someone who
knows how.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
PGP: C57E 8B25 F994 D6D0 5F6B B961 EA08 9410 E3AE 35ED

---

› See More: SMS SPAM

In article <[email protected]>,
"Scott Nelson" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Same here.
> Most people don't know they can turn off E-Mail receiving via the 'manage
> your account' portion of the sprintpcs website.

Where, exactly? I couldn't find an option to do much more than block
specific numbers.

As soon as you login, on the lower right hand side under 'my online tools'
click on 'text messaging',
Then on the left hand side, click on 'settings and preferences'.
The middle menu called 'For SMS only' .

Scotty


"Cooper" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Scott Nelson" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Same here.
> > Most people don't know they can turn off E-Mail receiving via the
'manage
> > your account' portion of the sprintpcs website.
>
> Where, exactly? I couldn't find an option to do much more than block
> specific numbers.

In article <[email protected]>,
"Scott Nelson" <[email protected]> wrote:

> As soon as you login, on the lower right hand side under 'my online tools'
> click on 'text messaging',
> Then on the left hand side, click on 'settings and preferences'.
> The middle menu called 'For SMS only' .

I saw that yesterday, but neither of my phones use SMS. There is a
section for short mail, but it doesn't have the same options to turn off
receiving across the board. You can disable specific addresses, but no
"off" switch seems to be there. Thanks for the pointer, and I'll
disable the SMS stuff. But unless you can think of something else, it
doesn't appear that text messaging can be "turned off" there, at least
not for short mail phones.

For that fact, total SMS disabling isn't quite possible either, from
what I'm reading ("For incoming SMS messages sent via email, choose the
fields you want displayed on your phone. At least one field must remain
checked").

I think all of the Sprint phones do one-way SMS.
The new SMS launch is two way.

Scotty


"Cooper" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Scott Nelson" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > As soon as you login, on the lower right hand side under 'my online
tools'
> > click on 'text messaging',
> > Then on the left hand side, click on 'settings and preferences'.
> > The middle menu called 'For SMS only' .
>
> I saw that yesterday, but neither of my phones use SMS. There is a
> section for short mail, but it doesn't have the same options to turn off
> receiving across the board. You can disable specific addresses, but no
> "off" switch seems to be there. Thanks for the pointer, and I'll
> disable the SMS stuff. But unless you can think of something else, it
> doesn't appear that text messaging can be "turned off" there, at least
> not for short mail phones.
>
> For that fact, total SMS disabling isn't quite possible either, from
> what I'm reading ("For incoming SMS messages sent via email, choose the
> fields you want displayed on your phone. At least one field must remain
> checked").

According to SPRINTPCS.COM, as of March 5th, I am being charged CASUAL
SMS MESSAGING on my Nokia 3588i. I have disabled receiving of ALL SMS
on both my wife's and my phone. This weekend I will do the same on my
parents two phones and my sister's family's three phones. I am not
going to pay $10 a month for unlimited messaging AND I'm not going to
keep track of SPAM or unwanted SMS and deal with per message costs.

SMS is a great concept, but being charged for SPAM and unwanted
messages is something I will NOT put up with. Unless PCS & Cell
providers allow free incoming messages, I can't see SMS catching on
(like overseas) in the US with the LOW cost voice service that we
have.

Until somethings done about this - DEATH TO SMS!

God Bless - Jorgy!

"Jorgy!" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> According to SPRINTPCS.COM, as of March 5th, I am being charged CASUAL
> SMS MESSAGING on my Nokia 3588i. I have disabled receiving of ALL SMS
> on both my wife's and my phone. This weekend I will do the same on my
> parents two phones and my sister's family's three phones. I am not
> going to pay $10 a month for unlimited messaging AND I'm not going to
> keep track of SPAM or unwanted SMS and deal with per message costs.
>
> SMS is a great concept, but being charged for SPAM and unwanted
> messages is something I will NOT put up with. Unless PCS & Cell
> providers allow free incoming messages, I can't see SMS catching on
> (like overseas) in the US with the LOW cost voice service that we
> have.
>
> Until somethings done about this - DEATH TO SMS!
>
> God Bless - Jorgy!

I talked to Sprint PCS yesterday about the ephedra spam that so many of us
got, and was told we won't get billed for this. We'll see if that happens.

In article <[email protected]>,=20
[email protected] says...
>=20
> "Scott Stephenson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> >
> > "John" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:[email protected]...
> > > I've read some of the threads concerning SMS spam.
> > >
> > > A friend (sprint customer also) and I both got a SMS message for
> > > Ephedrine from [email protected] almost at exactly the same time
> > > today.
> > >
> > > Customer Service states they're received a 'few' complaints about SMS
> > > spam so far and say they are working on the problem.
> > >
> > >
> > > Where are these spammers getting our numbers?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> > They are probably not 'getting' your number. More than likely, they ar=
e
> > spamming a large range of numbers, knowing that the good numbers will g=
et
> > the spam. Its not hard for them to figure out that if they spam a num=
ber
> > range of something like 111-111-1111 to 111-111-9999, a good percentage=
of
> > their crap will get through.
>=20
> I'm guessing that SPCS has some sort of filtering when TMs are bombarded
> from a single source. I suppose that some could get through. 99% of the s=
pam
> sent to my 5 or so email addresses are caught in the respective isp email
> filters, but some do get through.
>=20
> Bob
>=20
> Bob
>=20
>=20
>=20

No, Bob, we don't. Not anything automatic, at least. I'm sure we=20
have the manual ability. But nothing automatic.

--=20
R=D8=DF
O/Siris
I work for Sprint PCS
I *don't* speak for them

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected]=20
says...
> John <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Interesting. =20
> >=20
> > Can you elaborate? =20
> >=20
> > How does a cellular company's system know the difference from a 'true'
> > SMS message versus an internet based message?
>=20
> Internet messages must be delivered through a mail server at some point.
> SMS messages are delivered through SMS gateways. Completely different sof=
tware.=20
>=20
> Verizon lets you sign onto vtext.com and block messages sent from that we=
bsite
> or through e-mail but you can still get true SMS from another phone. Spri=
nt
> should be able to do it too, but you may need to escalate to someone who
> knows how.=20
>=20
>=20

It's not hard, and yes, you *can* restrict messages. Not to=20
Shortmail, since that's online. But for the Shortmail phones,=20
messages sent to <phone number>@messaging.sprintpcs.com arrive on the=20
phone as one-way text messages, notifications. And there is still a=20
way to block that. Online tools as has already been mentioned, and=20
then text messaging. Click on the "Settings & Preferences" link to=20
the RIGHT of the tabs. You should find a tab there that includes=20
three check boxes for blocking messages: SMTP, Web, and TAPI. For=20
Shortmail phones, "SMS" goes to Shortmail, so that's not an option=20
because it doesn't happen, SMS direct to a Shortmail phone, I mean.


--=20
R=D8=DF
O/Siris
I work for Sprint PCS
I *don't* speak for them

> > I'm guessing that SPCS has some sort of filtering when TMs are bombarded
> > from a single source. I suppose that some could get through. 99% of the spam
> > sent to my 5 or so email addresses are caught in the respective isp email
> > filters, but some do get through.

A major overstatement. More like 90% when fiolters were first put in,
far less now, unless you filter by only accepting mail from a white list.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Robert M. <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>> > I'm guessing that SPCS has some sort of filtering when TMs are bombarded
>> > from a single source. I suppose that some could get through. 99% of the spam
>> > sent to my 5 or so email addresses are caught in the respective isp email
>> > filters, but some do get through.
>
> A major overstatement. More like 90% when fiolters were first put in,
> far less now, unless you filter by only accepting mail from a white list.

Why couldn't they catch 99% of the spam. My filters catch at least 99%
of the spam lately. I get several hundred spam mails each day and only
about 2 get through if any do at all. I use SpamAssassin with Baysian
learning turned on and I train it with any false negatives. It works
very well.

- --

Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (FreeBSD)

iD8DBQFATHt51p0e3NXsrtERAnbyAKCbKc63RkxFH8Y4b3iwpZOMhb90fQCgiwkN
0PMp9qHv2HMCy1ubMyJDmaY=
=/urr
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

"Thomas T. Veldhouse" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Robert M. <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >
> >> > I'm guessing that SPCS has some sort of filtering when TMs are
bombarded
> >> > from a single source. I suppose that some could get through. 99% of
the spam
> >> > sent to my 5 or so email addresses are caught in the respective isp
email
> >> > filters, but some do get through.
> >
> > A major overstatement. More like 90% when fiolters were first put in,
> > far less now, unless you filter by only accepting mail from a white
list.
>
> Why couldn't they catch 99% of the spam. My filters catch at least 99%
> of the spam lately. I get several hundred spam mails each day and only
> about 2 get through if any do at all. I use SpamAssassin with Baysian
> learning turned on and I train it with any false negatives. It works
> very well.
>
> - --
>
> Thomas T. Veldhouse

EL does an excellent job in filtering out Spam ... I have my SPCS email
forwarded to my EL account. I must get 30-40 daily spams sent to my SPCS
account, and only 1 or 2 of those spams come through every other day or so
....

Bob

In article <[email protected]>,
O/Siris <0siris@sprîntpcs.com> wrote:

> It's not hard, and yes, you *can* restrict messages. Not to
> Shortmail, since that's online. But for the Shortmail phones,
> messages sent to <phone number>@messaging.sprintpcs.com arrive on the
> phone as one-way text messages, notifications. And there is still a
> way to block that. Online tools as has already been mentioned, and
> then text messaging. Click on the "Settings & Preferences" link to
> the RIGHT of the tabs. You should find a tab there that includes
> three check boxes for blocking messages: SMTP, Web, and TAPI.

I would love to see where you're seeing these options; because they're
just not on anything I've ever seen in my account. The closest I've
gotten is seeing the row, *within SMS* (NOT shortmail), that reads like
this:

Check or uncheck boxes to determine the types of SMS messages others can
send to you
Allow web messages Allow email messages Allow "TAP" messages


Again, that's only in the SMS box; the shortmail box allows blocking of
individual messages (meaning you have to be spammed first to know to
turn it off), but not across-the-board disallowing of text messages as
with SMS. As I've told the previous person who said this was "easy" to
turn off in shortmail, I've yet to see how.

In article <[email protected]>,=20
[email protected] says...
> I would love to see where you're seeing these options; because they're=20
> just not on anything I've ever seen in my account. The closest I've=20
> gotten is seeing the row, *within SMS* (NOT shortmail), that reads like=
=20
> this:
>=20

Good point. I guess they *finally* updated the messaging pages to=20
the new look/feel. But those three check boxes you mentioned are=20
what I meant. They should work for notifications, too.

--=20
R=D8=DF
O/Siris
I work for Sprint PCS
I *don't* speak for them