Mobile Spam, Part III

This is the continuing saga of trying to block the increasing spam text messages from my cell phone which uses T-Mobile for its service. If you’re just joining us, check out Part I and Part II before reading the conclusion.

After waiting for three days to get onto the T-Mobile website, I navigated over to “Communication Tools.” From there I selected “Spam and Email Filters.” Great, I was finally on the correct screen, which was no small achievement at this point!

First I selected the option that I could only receive messages from other cell phones. I figure that most text spammers are sending their stuff through the email system, and not from keying it on the tiny keyboard on their phone, so that should cut things down to size as a starter move.

Next, remember that the T-Mobile guy said that I couldn’t block all text messages? While that may be potentially true, I figured out a way to practically do it. What they intend for you to do is to generate keywords to block that if the message contains those words, it gets identified as spam. While this sounds great in theory, we all know from our email accounts that it never really works. I’ve had spam email blockers on all of my accounts for years, and yet I still receive hundreds of spam emails every week, just like many other users.

Rather than selecting keywords that then identify the email as spam, I went another route. I decided to set it up that the text message would only go through if it contains a certain phrase. That phrase is equivalent to a random twenty character string, which makes the Wargames code look easy to guess. So while I can’t block the text message service completely, this should raise the bar high enough to keep anything from getting through.

While there was an option to have the messages forwarded to an email account, I chose the discard option. I already have plenty of spam, and I don’t need any more. I hope this helps some other folks out there, as since I did this, I have received no further mobile spam messages.

--Jonas

Mobile Spam, Part Two

The Continuing Saga…

After receiving an increasing amount of spam text messages, I decided to get those almost helpful and friendly folks over at T-Mobile on the horn to iron out that I didn’t want to be paying for Spam messages. The conversation went something like this:

Me: “Hi, this is Jonas, and I’m having an issue with my phone.”

T-Mobile Jeff: “Ok, what seems to be the problem?”

Me: “Well, I’ve been receiving Spam messages. I got one a few months back, and now I received two last month. As I pay by the message, there’s really no point in paying for Spam. Is there a way to block all the text messages on the phone?”

T-Mobile Jeff: “Spam?”

At this point, I’m starting to get that sinking feeling…

Me: “Spam, as in unwanted email.”

T-Mobile Jeff: “Oh. Are you sure you didn’t want the message?”

Me: “Yeah, absolutely sure. It was a solicitation for medications the first one, and the second time for under priced software from a shady distributor.”

T-Mobile Jeff: “You must have posted your cell phone number on the internet somewhere. That’s why you’re getting the messages.”

Now I really think that this guy must think he’s dealing with an idiot, but I feel like we’re not quite communicating.

Me: “Listen, I’ve never posted my cell phone number anywhere. I’ve never sent a text message to anyone, ever. Can we just disable the text messages for the account somehow?”

T-Mobile Jeff: “I can’t block it, but we can add a filter for the Spam.”

Somehow, now he understands the term.

Me: “Great, go ahead and do it."

T-Mobile Jeff: “No, you have to do it.”

Me: “Ok, how do I add the filter?”

T-Mobile Jeff: “You have to log on to the My T-Mobile site, and add a spam and keyword filter under Communication Tools.”

At this point Jeff tries to log on to the site and walk me through the process. The only difficulty is that that portion of the site is completely down. Believe it or not, I’ve been trying to log onto that portion of the site for the last three days, and it is consistently down.

Is T-Mobile deliberately trying to keep the Spam going so that they can get the text message fees? Why wouldn’t the Spam filter be on by default? They didn’t offer to take off the charges for the messages that I received. There’s also no way to totally disable the text messaging on the phone according to them. Let’s just say we can add this to the list of complaints, and why I wish I didn’t have a two year contract with them with over a year left.

--Jonas

Read the conclusion over here.

Mobile Spam

Being a "Generation Xer," I just really don't have a need for text messaging. If I want to send someone a message, I use my email account. If I want to reach them on the phone, I use my voice. As tech savvy as I am, I have never sent a text message to anyone, nor do I forsee myself doing so anytime soon.

However, I still receive them. Last month, I received several of them in fact. They were all from places looking to sell me software, or pharmaceuticals, or whatever they were hocking that day. I have no idea where they got my phone number from. At fifteen cents a message, it's not breaking the bank yet, but the only thing worse than receiving spam is paying to receive spam.

On my email account, when I first got it over a decade ago, spam was quite rare. Now I receive five spam messages for each real email received. If text message spam grows at the same rate, this could start to add up- especially for the cell phone service companies.

Apparently, in at least one state, mobile spam is illegal. However, legal or not, I'm still getting spammed, and paying for the text messages which don't seem to be stopping.

I'm planning on calling T-Mobile. I'm not sure what they can do. Is there some spam filter they can out into place? Can they totally block text messaging from my phone? Or will I be told there is nothing they can do? At the very least, maybe this will encourage them to drop me from calling too much.

I'll keep you all posted as to how this one progresses...

--Jonas

The story continues over here.