I just got a spam text message! It asked if I wanted a date tonight and told me to go to a website to get one!
I am now paying for spam! WTF!
Spam Text Messages!
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docellis
- America's Most Beloved Twitter Joke Thief
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thrill
- bronoun enthusiast
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Re: Spam Text Messages!
It was someone here, wasn't it?
Speak up.
Speak up.
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Popeye_Card
- GRB's most intelligent & humble poster
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- Joined: April 17 06, 11:25 am
Re: Spam Text Messages!
Yeah, that was me. And I actually meant to text planet instead. Sorry about that.docellis wrote:I just got a spam text message! It asked if I wanted a date tonight and told me to go to a website to get one!
I am now paying for spam! WTF!
--P--
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Jocephus
- 99% conan clips
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Re: Spam Text Messages!
thats happened to me a couple times...
it was incredibly annoying
it was incredibly annoying
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docellis
- America's Most Beloved Twitter Joke Thief
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Re: Spam Text Messages!
And another one, about 4 hours later.
wtfhi Corina
Hot stok movers for tomorrow
lookup-fdke
don't regret
later
take care
Merle
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Radbird
- There's someone in my head but it's not me
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Re: Spam Text Messages!
That is so strange. I would be seriously annoyed too. Can you set up some sort of filter on incoming text msgs?docellis wrote:And another one, about 4 hours later.
wtfhi Corina
Hot stok movers for tomorrow
lookup-fdke
don't regret
later
take care
Merle
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Arthur Dent
- Hall Of Famer
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- Location: Austin
Re: Spam Text Messages!
I've gotten a few of these including one a few hours after I got a new cell phone and before I'd given the number to anyone. I called T-Mobile to try and block the sender, but they told me that this wasn't possible. Instead, I got 20 free text messages. Oh well. I've had the phone for maybe 6 months now and have gotten less than five spam messages, so I decided it wasn't worth worrying about at 5¢ a pop.
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Mary1966
- President of the Ponson Fan Club
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Re: Spam Text Messages!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20593519/
It seems like everyone with a wireless device is communicating via text messaging these days.
Unfortunately, this includes spammers.
For a few days in late August, wireless customers across the country received an unsolicited bulk text message on their cell phones and pagers pitching the penny stock of a Nevada company.
For many wireless customers, this was their first experience with text message spam.
The message read:
This one is put on Radar
Sym: FDKE
Fredericks Entertainment, Inc.
See all the volume, GET IN
It’ll be $2 within a week
“It’s annoying because I have to pay for it,” said Erik Englund of Seattle, who doesn’t have a text message plan. Until last week, he thought cell phones were spam-free. Not anymore.
Another victim of the spam, Bill Rice, was so upset that he went to a Verizon store, canceled his text message service and blocked all incoming text messages. Verizon is one of the few major wireless companies that let you do that.
"I was just appalled and very annoyed,” Rice, of Seattle, said.
Verizon Wireless claims to block up to 50,000 spam text messages per day. “One spam message is too many as far as we’re concerned,” said Georgia Taylor, Verizon Wireless representative. “We take great lengths in the way of filters and technology to actually block most of these.”
How did the spammers get the numbers of the wireless devices attacked? Taylor says it was random dialing.
How many of the spam messages promoting Fredericks Entertainment were delivered? If the wireless companies know, they won’t say. I can tell you Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and U.S Cellular customers across the country got them.
Sprint representative Caroline Semerdjian said there were two simultaneous spam attacks that overloaded the company’s spam filters and allowed many of the junk messages to get through.
“These guys are constantly trying and testing the water to find a way to get around the filters,” says Howard Schmidt of R&H Consulting in Seattle.
Schmidt, a former White House cyber security consultant, is concerned about the whole issue of attacks on wireless devices. “As we’ve become more hardened in the desktops and the servers, the next logical place for those with criminal intent to go to is the mobile world,” he says.
If you have a bundled plan, these messages didn't cost you anything, they just reduced the number of messages you can receive this month. If you pay per text message, it did cost you.
In either case, you can contact the customer service department at your cell phone company to get a refund or credit. If they won’t give you one, I would like to hear from you.
Herb Weisbaum
herb@consumerman.com
It seems like everyone with a wireless device is communicating via text messaging these days.
Unfortunately, this includes spammers.
For a few days in late August, wireless customers across the country received an unsolicited bulk text message on their cell phones and pagers pitching the penny stock of a Nevada company.
For many wireless customers, this was their first experience with text message spam.
The message read:
This one is put on Radar
Sym: FDKE
Fredericks Entertainment, Inc.
See all the volume, GET IN
It’ll be $2 within a week
“It’s annoying because I have to pay for it,” said Erik Englund of Seattle, who doesn’t have a text message plan. Until last week, he thought cell phones were spam-free. Not anymore.
Another victim of the spam, Bill Rice, was so upset that he went to a Verizon store, canceled his text message service and blocked all incoming text messages. Verizon is one of the few major wireless companies that let you do that.
"I was just appalled and very annoyed,” Rice, of Seattle, said.
Verizon Wireless claims to block up to 50,000 spam text messages per day. “One spam message is too many as far as we’re concerned,” said Georgia Taylor, Verizon Wireless representative. “We take great lengths in the way of filters and technology to actually block most of these.”
How did the spammers get the numbers of the wireless devices attacked? Taylor says it was random dialing.
How many of the spam messages promoting Fredericks Entertainment were delivered? If the wireless companies know, they won’t say. I can tell you Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and U.S Cellular customers across the country got them.
Sprint representative Caroline Semerdjian said there were two simultaneous spam attacks that overloaded the company’s spam filters and allowed many of the junk messages to get through.
“These guys are constantly trying and testing the water to find a way to get around the filters,” says Howard Schmidt of R&H Consulting in Seattle.
Schmidt, a former White House cyber security consultant, is concerned about the whole issue of attacks on wireless devices. “As we’ve become more hardened in the desktops and the servers, the next logical place for those with criminal intent to go to is the mobile world,” he says.
If you have a bundled plan, these messages didn't cost you anything, they just reduced the number of messages you can receive this month. If you pay per text message, it did cost you.
In either case, you can contact the customer service department at your cell phone company to get a refund or credit. If they won’t give you one, I would like to hear from you.
Herb Weisbaum
herb@consumerman.com