Will US Carriers Be Able To Prevent Mobile Spam?

from the it's-coming...-but-maybe-not-so-much dept

Lots of people have been predicting that the next big spam problem is going to be text messaging SMS spam to your mobile phone. While it's already a problem in some countries, some are now suggesting that it won't be that big of a problem in the US -- though, some of the reasoning may be questioned. The first reason given is that US users don't text message as much. The obvious response to that is that the word "yet" needs to be added to that sentence. The trend is pretty clear, and text messaging use in the US has been rising rapidly over the last year. Next, they claim that the US carriers have learned from overseas carriers and are better prepared. Perhaps that's true, but spammers are pretty good about getting around any kind of "preparations." The next reason is my favorite: "Text messages sent from one carrier to another may not go through, because the networks are not always technically compatible." In other words, "because US carriers are so technically screwed up, many spam messages may just disappear -- as may many legitimate messages." Funny that this comes right after the experts claim the US carriers are better prepared to stop spam. If they still haven't figured out interoperability, then how can they really be prepared for text spam? Still, the biggest reason why text spam may not be as big an issue in the US is that many carriers charge for each text message, adding quite the speedbump to any traditional spammer's plans. Unfortunately, though, there are often ways around this, as many phone systems either offer web gateways for sending free text messages or have an email-to-SMS system that will let people send text messages over email. In such cases, the spammer just needs to figure out what email address goes to your phone, and (once again) there will be plenty of mobile spam annoying you everywhere you go.