How to block cel phone email spam?

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N Hamilton - 04 May 2005 00:44 GMT

Today after having a new V551 for 4 months, and having received no email messages, I get 8 emails on my phone in one day with a
message saying there was a virus in the email. (I don't know whether the virus message came from the Cingular or from the
originator). I have given my phone email address to only one person who doesn't even know how to use it!

Is there some way to generate a white list to block spam? This is going to be a huge problem is there is no way to stop this at the
ISP level. If I get spam email that I have to pay for, the email is going to get turned off.

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Jack Zwick - 04 May 2005 01:59 GMT

> Today after having a new V551 for 4 months, and having received no email
> messages, I get 8 emails on my phone in one day with a
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> ISP level. If I get spam email that I have to pay for, the email is going to
> get turned off.

EXACTLY. and thats what I did. I had email and messaging turned off.

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mhicaoidh - 04 May 2005 04:05 GMT

Taking a moment's reflection, N Hamilton mused:

| I have
| given my phone email address to only one person who doesn't even know
| how to use it!

If that person put your address in their computer's email client,
and then they were infected with an address harvesting virus, then
that's likely the source. Have your friend scan their computer for
viruses.

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N Hamilton - 04 May 2005 10:31 GMT

It's my wife. And it's not in her address book.
"...doesn't even know how to use it..." means she doesn't know how to use it!

> Taking a moment's reflection, N Hamilton mused:
> |
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> that's likely the source. Have your friend scan their computer for
> viruses.

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JohnF - 04 May 2005 14:07 GMT

Someone who has your address in their address book has a virus. When the
virus runs it randomly selects an address from the address book where it's
running and uses that address as the "from" address. When the virus is
detected the bounce goes back to you.

> It's my wife. And it's not in her address book.
> "...doesn't even know how to use it..." means she doesn't know how to use
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>> that's likely the source. Have your friend scan their computer for
>> viruses.

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N Hamilton - 04 May 2005 22:17 GMT

I have given my phone address out to only one person. My wife. It is not in her PC's address book as she has never used it.

If I wanted to spam all the phones at Cingular it would be very easy. Just have a little app generate email addresses for all the
following:
919607xxxx@cingularme.com

where 919 is my area code xxxx is all the 4-digit numbers between 0000 and 9999.

Then repeat for all the other Cingular area codes and prefixes besides 607.

For a spammer in Rumania this would be about 10 minutes work!

Sure there would be a lot of non-deliveries but that's the nature of spammer's business model.

> Someone who has your address in their address book has a virus. When the virus runs it randomly selects an address from the
> address book where it's running and uses that address as the "from" address. When the virus is detected the bounce goes back to
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>>> that's likely the source. Have your friend scan their computer for
>>> viruses.

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krctx - 08 May 2005 04:00 GMT

> Today after having a new V551 for 4 months, and having received no email messages, I get 8 emails on my phone in one day with a
> message saying there was a virus in the email. (I don't know whether the virus message came from the Cingular or from the
> originator). I have given my phone email address to only one person who doesn't even know how to use it!
>
> Is there some way to generate a white list to block spam? This is going to be a huge problem is there is no way to stop this at the
> ISP level. If I get spam email that I have to pay for, the email is going to get turned off.

I haven't signed up at www.cingularme.com, but the website says you can
block unwanted messages and prevent spam.

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N Hamilton - 08 May 2005 12:14 GMT

You can only block email by domain.
Which with spam does no good.

What they need is a "white list only" that allows only those on the white list to send email to my phone.

>> Today after having a new V551 for 4 months, and having received no email
> messages, I get 8 emails on my phone in one day with a
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> I haven't signed up at www.cingularme.com, but the website says you can
> block unwanted messages and prevent spam.

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