SMS Spam?

[Artemis]

Hellos guys/gals,

Just out of curiosity wondering if any of you have received any?

I'm in Vancouver and went through a period where I was getting 2 or 3 a day.

Lately it has seemed to really taper off *knocks on wood*

Interesting MS article;

http://mobilesyrup.com/2014/06/23/montrealers-receive-the-most-sms-spam-in-canada-says-report/

[NFtoBC]

No, just voice spam (telemarketers).

[xray]

Yes, it seems I've won a lot of free trips on WestJet and Airmiles.

[nasty]

Over a decade ago, I had Telus disable all incoming texts. I don't use texting, so no big deal. With the modern smartphone, I even removed the texting app, but I'm careful with the phone settings to avoid roaming and such, so no need for even Telus-text to bother me.

[Artemis]

---

@nasty wrote:
Over a decade ago, I had Telus disable all incoming texts. I don't use texting, so no big deal. With the modern smartphone, I even removed the texting app, but I'm careful with the phone settings to avoid roaming and such, so no need for even Telus-text to bother me.

---

That would definitely take care of SMS.

What about voice? Do you get random spam calls?

[nasty]

---

@Artemis wrote:

What about voice? Do you get random spam calls?

---

Amazingly, Nope.

My cell number is also not freely given out by me to every tom, dik, and spammy either.  So even with it also being given to my financial institutions , medical and such places, no third party calling center has stolen it yet from them to spam(call or other) me with.  There is one bank(I had an account, once) who only has my landline number and I eventually call blocked them for ignoring my order to stop calling once a month with whatever things they is selling.

There's always the day that someone gets their address book stolen from their phone by an app, but so far, so good.

Theres lots of ways to harvest phone numbers and email addresses for spamming(semi-legitimate contests. stores that 'request' it at the checkout), and the end user giving it out freely does not help.

Robocall sms spam(especially when they use a cell number list) is a quick way to target an entire phone number range and then target those that reply(sometimes with lots of personal information), with more spam.  They hide behind some shell entity, collect instant money, and by the time the heat comes on, they are gone and to the next shell entity.

An interesting article, Verizon, AT&T  have a system that blocks 'internet sent sms'. You can still receive regular cell to cell sms, but not computer to sms. So you are blocking any spammer who doesn't robodial with a cell phone as the sms interface.

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/how-to-block-cellphone-spam/

One of the comments has this at Sprint.

1. Log-In

2. Go to Digital Lounge

3. Click on Messaging (top menu)

4. Click on Block Messages (left menu)

5. Choose who you will receive text messages from with the options below. a) Do not block any text messages. b) Block messages from all senders in my block list c) Only allow messages from senders in my allow list (if you don’t add anyone, all text messages will be blocked.

I read on the TelusSupport Twitter this week, Users reporting that Telus is overly sending some 'free' sms spam for Telus products.

which the user then has to contact the Telus privacy department to ensure they get opted out, if the call agent can't do it.

http://about.telus.com/community/english/privacy

[Ginnungagap]

I'm with @NFtoBC on this one. I've only had telemarketing voice spam so far thankfully.