Unlike computers, most of us use mobile phones for our needs. Similar to the email spam, mobile spamming is growing at an alarming rate in today's world. While the mobile industry is still trying to figure out SMS spam, let us understand what the mobile spamming is all about.

Since the e-mail spam scourge took over the media, people have worried that there will be mobile phone spam. Spam is just another way of saying that advertisers send unsolicited text message marketing, marketing SMS, bluetooth marketing or any other form of mobile marketing - it's mobile phone spam. Since consumers first started to use SMS (Short Messaging Service) marketers have had the idea of text message marketing. And since that time marketing SMS messages have grown and changed and new technology like bluetooth marketing, marketing bluetooth style to phones in close proximity to advertisers. Believe it or not, there are even guides on how to spam phones.

The Term

In technical term SMS Spam is defined as unwanted text messages generally of a commercial nature sent to your phone over the SMS protocol. In general term, SMS spam (sometimes called cell phone spam) is any junk message delivered to a mobile phone as text messaging through the Short Message Service (SMS). Mobile phone spam can also be defined as a form of spamming directed at the text messaging service of a mobile phone. It is described as mobile spamming, SMS spam, text spam, or SpaSMS but is most frequently referred to as m-spam.

Sensible Usage of Mobile Marketing

Before we proceed to the disadvantages or the ill-effects of mobile phone marketing, it is better for us to look at the brighter side of SMS marketing from a sensible point of view.

Consumer Preference is about permission based marketing, permission marketing solution. If, as an advertiser you can execute permission based marketing campaigns then you can certainly find ways to benefit from mobile marketing. Permission starts with understanding the consumer marketing preference. If you can understand consumer marketing preference, then you can execute permission based marketing and permission marketing is not mobile phone spam.

There are many mobile marketing company listings that can be found on the Internet. Most mobile marketing company websites will tell you how they focus on permission marketing. Make sure that the one you partner with does more than tell you about it on the website. Opt-in marketing starts with your traditional marketing soliciting for permission.

Yes - Mobile marketing starts with traditional marketing - print, web, radio, television - all of the old standards. Because before you can send the first message to a consumer, you must obtain their permission... and that means that you understand consumer marketing preference.

Why do I get SMS Spam?

Have you ever posted your cell phone number to a public website or forum? Have you ever signed up for “free” ring tones for your phone by entering in your phone number to “register”? These are the most common ways for spammers to get your mobile phone number. In the first case of posting your cell phone to a public website or forum, spammers write sophisticated phone “harvesting” software that scans public websites looking for phone numbers. In the second case of entering your number in to receive a “free” ring tone, either the site operator themselves is a spammer or more likely they sell your phone numbers to others to do the spamming.

Unfortunately there are far too many ways to have you number appear on an SMS text spammers database. Most of the spammers get the number of your cell phone using the following methods

1. Buying Mobile Content : When buying a ring tone, a mobile game or other mobile entertainment, the terms and conditions of the service provider often include a clause that gives the provider permission to send you SMS text advertising messages. Though technically this isn't SMS text spam, its no less irritating. This clause is often referred to as opt-in, meaning that you can opt-out of receiving SMS text messages from the provider.

2. Downloading Free Mobile Content : This differs slightly to 'Buying Mobile Content' in that the provider often gives you no option to opt-out from receiving the SMS text spam. They're of the opinion that they're giving you a free ring tone, free mobile game or other such mobile content, in exchange to your agreeing to receive their SMS text messages.

3. Using a Free SMS Text Service : Be in no doubt that ALL of the free SMS text service providers collect mobile numbers. What matters is what they plan to do with it once they have it.

It's worth noting at this point that ALL SMS text messages sent to a mobile phone or cell phone have a cost, and although some free SMS text providers can get that cost down to fractions of a penny, it is still a cost that they incur.

The reputable free SMS providers will go to great lengths to protect your personal data and NOT disclose your number to ANY third parties. They will however happily send you an SMS text advertising message on behalf of a third party. They will charge a fee to the business wanting to advertise to you., it's how they generate a profit and they make this very clear in their terms and conditions. It's an acceptable trade off.

The less reputable free SMS providers operate with less care for your personal data, and although they're terms and conditions include a clause to send you SMS text advertising, they may send an excessive number of messages, or even sell their database of mobile numbers to third parties.

4. Someone else used a Free SMS Text Service : The same less reputable Free SMS providers will collect the mobile numbers of recipients. For example, a friend used a free SMS service to send you a text, you're number will have been stored for use as they see fit.

5. Pure Speculation : This is probably the easiest method an SMS text spammer can use to collect mobile numbers. They simply speculate. If mobile number 099912345678 has been issued by an operator or network, then it's very, very likely that the 09991234566 and 099912345679 have also been issued at some point.

Having collected a number of known numbers, the spammer can use a simple program to generate a list of other likely numbers.

What if You Are Victim?

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do if you are already receiving SMS Spam. Calling your cell phone provider generally won’t help much. They just don’t have a good means for stopping SMS Spam. How do they know whether or not you want to receive a certain SMS? They aren’t in the business (nor do they want to be) to censor or filter content going to your phone. First off, if they get paid every time you get a SMS, they don’t have a huge incentive to fix the issue. Second, there could be some legal issues should they start to filter content.

So, what can you do? Although there are products that claim to filter SMS Spam, it doesn’t do much good if you’re in the situation where you need to pay for each incoming message as the filter would reside on your phone and you’d still technically receive the message before it gets deleted. The only “sure thing” is to either have your carrier disable SMS messaging on your phone altogether (which probably isn’t practical) or you change your phone number.

The best way to avoid getting SMS Spam in the first place is to avoid posting your cell phone number in any public place such as a discussion forum or website. The other ways of fighting this menace is to approach it from the legal angle. In the coming sections, we will take a look at how this can be done.

Global Criminal Aspects

SMS spam is illegal under common law in most jurisdictions as trespass to chattels. Jurisdictions with specific SMS spam regulation and fines include Australia, the European Union and others. In the United States, violators face substantial costs. In a recent settlement, the violator agreed to pay $150 to each spam recipient. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has expanded Phone Spam regulations to cover also Voice Spam - mostly in form of prerecorded telemarketing calls - commonly known as robocalls. Victims can file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In California, Section 17538.41 of the B&P Code bans text message advertisement. Consumers can sue on an individual or class basis per a private right of action against unfair business practices.

Law Enforcement in US Courts

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released an order in Aug, 2004 that reiterated that SMS spam messages to cell-phones are illegal under the existing Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and also under the CAN-SPAM Act. Each such unsolicited message received without permission entitles the recipient to take the sender to small claims court and collect a minimum of $500 for each violation. They said this in 2003, and reiterated it in 2004: 'In 2003, we released a Report and Order in which we reaffirmed that the TCPA prohibits any call using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded message to any wireless telephone number. We concluded that this encompasses both voice calls and text calls, including Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging calls, to wireless phone numbers.'

The 2003 TCPA Order (18 FCC Rcd at 14115, para. 165 says: “Both the statute and our rules prohibit these calls, with limited exceptions, ‘to any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged.’ This encompasses both voice calls and text calls to wireless numbers including, for example, short message service (SMS) calls, provided the call is made to a telephone number assigned to such service.”

SMS Spam Reduction

Let us look at the various factors complicating SMS spam reduction. Fighting SMS spam is complicated by many factors, not the least of which is that most mobile phones have limited programmability and little if any capacity to run third-party spam-filtering software. Even were this not the case, however, filtering SMS spam at the recipient device level would be an imperfect solution in markets where users are charged to receive messages, as the user would still have to pay for the message once the provider sent it, even if software on the device blocked it from appearing on the device's display. This problem is not present in most of the world outside the U.S., however, as users are not charged to receive messages.

Providers may fear liability should a legitimate message of an emergency nature be blocked. Nonetheless, many providers voluntarily provide their subscribers technical means for mitigating unsolicited SMS messages.

Fighting SMS Spam

Similar to the email spam, stopping SMS spam is also impossible. There are, however, a few strategies that can help reduce SMS spam. One of the most obvious SMS spam-reduction techniques is to guard one's cell phone number. One of the biggest sources of SMS spam is number harvesting carried out by Internet sites offering "free" ring tone downloads. In order to facilitate the downloads, users must provide their phones' numbers; which in turn are used to send frequent advertising messages to the phone. Wording in the websites' Terms of Service make this legal; and users may have to go as far as to change their cell phone numbers to stop the spam.

Another approach to reducing SMS spam that is offered by some carriers involves creating an alias address rather than using the cell phone's number as a text message address. Only messages sent to the alias are delivered; messages sent to the phone's number are discarded. In jurisdictions that forbid telecommunications providers from filtering SMS messages, the subscriber must specifically disable all text messages from being sent to the numerical address in order for the provider to be in compliance with the law.

Finally, most cell phone providers offer the option of completely disabling all text messaging services on a user's account. This extreme solution, however, is satisfactory only for those users who have neither the need nor the desire to utilize SMS at all.

In June 2009, three major Chinese carriers namely China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom imposed limits on text messaging in order to crack down on spam SMS. Under the restrictions, a phone number can send no more than 200 messages per hour and 1000/day on weekdays.

Challenges for Mobile Industry

The problem has been around forever, yet the mobile industry is still fighting for a solution to SMS spam. As such a quickly growing problem, the FCC and several mobile-specific organizations are still trying to define what is and what isn’t considered mobile SPAM- a process that’s easier said than done.

Mobile spam can be sub-divided into two general categories: legitimate marketers not following best practices and sending unsolicited messages, and the more devious malware attacks, in which malicious messages are sent through text or e-mail to attack a phone’s operating system.  Either way, this spam is annoying to consumers, and is giving legitimate rule-following mobile marketers a bad name.

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and other mobile communities have been busy creating industry best practices, rules and regulations to help legitimate marketers stay a step ahead of spammers and to remain transparent in their efforts, but the entire landscape changes so quickly that staying ahead of the curve is getting increasingly difficult.

Contributing to the intolerance of SMS spam is the fact that consumers often will stop what they are doing to read a new mobile message. In the US, some mobile users will likely have to pay a fee for receiving SMS (whether it is genuine or SPAM). Getting more and more spam messages makes consumers that much more weary of opening any marketing-based SMS message, legitimate or not.

Wireless carriers are doing their part in trying to curb SMS spam. Companies such as AT&T in US are allowing customers to restrict the sources of email that can reach their devices, or replying BLOCK to any email or SMS message deemed unsolicited, but as it does via traditional spam, carriers are usually a step behind the spammers.

It’s a delicate balance, and a problem that won’t be going away any time soon, but the carriers, the FCC and most mobile-based organizations are busy trying to distinguish, fight and regulate spam the best they can.  It just reiterates the fact that if you’re a mobile marketer, industry best practices should be your number one concern at all times.

Conclusion

The practice of SMS spam is fairly new to India, but has been common in Japan and North America and Europe for years. Way back in 2001-2002, major mobile service providers in America were overcome by the volume of SMS spam, causing users' screens to freeze and spreading programs that caused the phones to dial emergency numbers.

As the popularity of mobile phones surged in the early 2000s, frequent users of text messaging began to see an increase in the number of unsolicited (and generally unwanted) commercial advertisements being sent to their telephones through text messaging. This can be particularly annoying for the recipient, because unlike email, it is usually difficult or impossible to delete an SMS message without reading it.

Some telecommunications providers believe that SMS spam is going to be the next big challenge as the fast development of technology allows SMS spam to be sent at relatively low cost using Internet SMS portals.

—By: R. Manoj. The author is an Assistant Editor at Fanatic Media, Bangalore. He is also an Independent Researcher, specialising in Computer System Security. He has an active interest in designing security algorithms for securing mission critical systems. He can reached at infosecurity@fanaticmedia.com