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New Research Claims iMessage Accounts for 30% of Mobile Spam Messages

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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iMessage is responsible for more than 30% of all spam messages on mobile devices, according to research done by security expert Tom Landesman and anti-spam company Cloudmark (via Wired). The researcher notes that there are multiple reasons as to why the platform has become a prime choice for spammers, stating that iMessage's reach across the iPhone, iPad, and Mac along with its accessibility have made it easy to target users:
That fusion of the desktop and mobile world makes it particularly easy for scammers to write a Mac OS script that can send messages to all types of devices just as fast as Apple will allow. "It's almost like a spammer's dream," says Landesman. "With four lines of code, using Apple scripts, you can tell your Mac machine to send message to whoever they want."
Click to expand...
imessage_ios72.jpg
With iMessage, spammers can send unwanted messages to a user's associated emails and phone numbers if enabled. The ability for the desktop Messages client to verify numbers with the iMessage network has also made sending spam to confirmed users easier, along with the fact that signing up for the service can be done with just an email. The researcher further notes that iMessage's read receipts feature (which can be turned off) allows spammers to better generate a list of verified users to spam based on activity.

Apple has made a few moves to combat spam in iMessage over the past year, adding a rate-limit for sent messages after some iOS developers experienced a denial-of-service prank, and adding a spam reporting tool. However, that tool remains a bit complicated to use, as it requires users to send Apple an email containing the screenshot of the spam message, the email or phone number it was received from, and the date and time.

Article Link: New Research Claims iMessage Accounts for 30% of Mobile Spam Messages
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/08/21/research-imessage-30-mobile-spam-messages/
MartinAppleGuy

MartinAppleGuy

macrumors 68020
Sep 27, 2013
2,247
889
I can only speak for myself an everyone who I know has an Apple device (so we are talking lots of people :p ), I have never seen nor heard of any spam via iMessage.
 
C

cRuNcHiE

macrumors 6502a
Jan 2, 2007
778
46
Non issue

I've never received a spam iMessage ever, but...


Simple fix : add a toggle option to 'only receive iMessages from people in my contact list'

Non approved senders will have to revert to email ( same amount of spam as usual) or SMS ( costs money)
 
saving107

saving107

macrumors 603
Oct 14, 2007
6,384
33
San Jose, Ca
For a while I had a spammer sending me iMessages around 8am, I know that since iOS 7 I can now block people from texting/calling me and for a while this is what I was doing with this spammer (though he would eventually just message me from a new email address).

About 2 months ago I got a message once again around 8am, I was getting ready for work and rather than block it I just swiped and delete the message, then the next day same thing, on the 3rd day he messaged me and it happen to be my day off. I received the message on my Mac and I was rather annoyed so I googled "Gay Porn" images and saved about 20 pictures, then using copy and paste I sent well over 100 text images (20 pictures each time) of gay porn from my Mac to that guy.

Two months later not a single spam from that person.

The spam was a sale on sunglasses and a bunch of accessories.
 
B

batchtaster

macrumors 65816
Mar 3, 2008
1,031
217
Never received one. Ever.

saving107 said:
I received the message on my Mac and I was rather annoyed so I googled "Gay Porn" images and saved about 20 pictures, then using copy and paste I sent well over 100 text images (20 pictures each time) of gay porn from my Mac to that guy.
Click to expand...

Any chance you could resend them to me?

P.S. Saving them probably put them into your Photo Stream...
 
Last edited:
keysofanxiety

keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
MartinAppleGuy said:
I can only speak for myself an everyone who I know has an Apple device (so we are talking lots of people :p ), I have never seen nor heard of any spam via iMessage.
Click to expand...

100% agreed -- first I'm hearing of this sort of stuff.

Then again, articles which say 'New Research' in the title are often followed with 'claims eating 5 bananas a day while standing upside down prevents cancer'.
 
goobot

goobot

macrumors 603
Jun 26, 2009
6,484
4,375
long island NY
saving107 said:
For a while I had a spammer sending me iMessages around 8am, I know that since iOS 7 I can now block people from texting/calling me and for a while this is what I was doing with this spammer (though he would eventually just message me from a new email address).

About 2 months ago I got a message once again around 8am, I was getting ready for work and rather than block it I just swiped and delete the message, then the next day same thing, on the 3rd day he messaged me and it happen to be my day off. I received the message on my Mac and I was rather annoyed so I googled "Gay Porn" images and saved about 20 pictures, then using copy and paste I sent well over 100 text images (20 pictures each time) of gay porn from my Mac to that guy.

Two months later not a single spam from that person.

The spam was a sale on sunglasses and a bunch of accessories.
Click to expand...
U should spam him :cool:
 
keysofanxiety

keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
saving107 said:
For a while I had a spammer sending me iMessages around 8am, I know that since iOS 7 I can now block people from texting/calling me and for a while this is what I was doing with this spammer (though he would eventually just message me from a new email address).

About 2 months ago I got a message once again around 8am, I was getting ready for work and rather than block it I just swiped and delete the message, then the next day same thing, on the 3rd day he messaged me and it happen to be my day off. I received the message on my Mac and I was rather annoyed so I googled "Gay Porn" images and saved about 20 pictures, then using copy and paste I sent well over 100 text images (20 pictures each time) of gay porn from my Mac to that guy.
Click to expand...

Uh-huh, reminds me of that time I was doing the hoovering naked and accidentally tripped into my vacuum cleaner.
 
irnchriz

irnchriz

macrumors 65816
May 2, 2005
1,034
2
Scotland
I get the occasional SMS spam but never had any on iMessage. Neither have my wife or kids, although the kids probably consider my requests to them to do their chores, spam.
 
SandboxGeneral

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
Wow, I guess I'm lucky so far to have never received any spam via iMessage.

I once received a spam text about 13 years ago when I had a Nextel phone.
 
ciaocibai

ciaocibai

macrumors newbie
Jan 16, 2011
13
2
I get TONS of spam through iMessage

Since everyone else is busy declaring there is no such thing as spam on iMessage, let me just share my own experience of receiving multiple spam messages from multiple accounts every day.

Blacklisting isn't helpful since they just use a new address every time, and turning off iMessage for people who aren't contacts isn't really a good alternative for me as I have to communicate with a lot of people in a lot of countries, many of whom I don't necessarily have contact details for ahead of time.

Screenshot to show my experience:

ibWU5Wc.png


Oh, and for reference I live in China. Don't know if spam should be worse here or not, but clearly an issue worth looking at.
 
ds2000

ds2000

macrumors 6502a
May 24, 2012
569
337
^ wow that sucks for you :( - I'm one of the lucky ones and have only ever had a good experience....
 
L

Logic368

macrumors regular
Oct 17, 2011
101
392
ciaocibai said:
Since everyone else is busy declaring there is no such thing as spam on iMessage, let me just share my own experience of receiving multiple spam messages from multiple accounts every day.

Blacklisting isn't helpful since they just use a new address every time, and turning off iMessage for people who aren't contacts isn't really a good alternative for me as I have to communicate with a lot of people in a lot of countries, many of whom I don't necessarily have contact details for ahead of time.

Screenshot to show my experience:

Image

Oh, and for reference I live in China. Don't know if spam should be worse here or not, but clearly an issue worth looking at.
Click to expand...

Spam is definitely worse in China, you don't wanna use email services like 163.com or qq, once you do that, you're screwed...
 
rish

rish

macrumors 6502
Mar 23, 2006
349
2
London UK
ciaocibai said:
Since everyone else is busy declaring there is no such thing as spam on iMessage, let me just share my own experience of receiving multiple spam messages from multiple accounts every day.

Blacklisting isn't helpful since they just use a new address every time, and turning off iMessage for people who aren't contacts isn't really a good alternative for me as I have to communicate with a lot of people in a lot of countries, many of whom I don't necessarily have contact details for ahead of time.

Screenshot to show my experience:

Image

Oh, and for reference I live in China. Don't know if spam should be worse here or not, but clearly an issue worth looking at.
Click to expand...


1. Turn off read receipts if activated
2. Activate iMessages to be received from known contacts in your list
3. Take a snap shot of all the spam messages with contact numbers and email addresses and send to imessage.spam@icloud.com
4. I have an email address that I give out when downloading software etc and ensure that all mail notifying of services goes there as a lot of these companies share the info (despite saying no sharing data with third party or company affiliations).

I've not had the problems you've encountered but email spam I do get and I report it as soon as it arrives. So far no iMessage spam thank fully.

Anyway I hope this helps and perhaps someone will have a better idea to contribute to support you. :)
 
T

thaifood

macrumors 6502
Jun 8, 2011
310
96
cRuNcHiE said:
I've never received a spam iMessage ever, but...


Simple fix : add a toggle option to 'only receive iMessages from people in my contact list'

Non approved senders will have to revert to email ( same amount of spam as usual) or SMS ( costs money)
Click to expand...

This is a good idea
 
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