Comment by alister
8 hours ago
In Brazil, people get so much SMS spam and phone call spam that many people turn off notifications for all text messages and phone calls and use only Whatsapp (even for voice calls).
But once in a while my iPhone in Brazil will get spam as a unblockable "system message". I'm not sure if I'm using the correct term. I'm mean that it looks just like an Apple system notification and it disappears without a trace afterward, but the content is obviously spam.
I wonder how they are able to do this.
I wonder if the cell carriers are seeing this as the existential threat it is, or if they’re just continuing with the whole “bury our heads in the sand” strategy.
If having a phone number has no benefit and only brings spam, and WiFi is ubiquitous in urban areas, a huge chunk of the population don’t really need cell plans any more. And the places without WiFi coverage (less dense areas) are the most expensive to provide service.
In the US at least, the FCC used to be pushing hard to combat the spam, like requiring authentication for caller ID, and it was the carriers that were dragging their feet and lobbying against it. So something tells me they just continue to view all the spam senders as an easy income source and don’t mind letting their whole business model die if it means short term profits.
> unblockable "system message"
This is a "flash SMS" message: https://nickvsnetworking.com/flash-sms-messages/
The nice thing on iOS at least is that they make it known it's a flash message. You'll get a full screen modal dialogue including a "Why did I get this message?" link that informs you about it and also informs you that sometimes they're used for scams.
https://i.imgur.com/lrSrm0n.jpeg
Android just gives you a generic popup that says "Class 0 message" in my testing.
In USA, I personally get 3-5 spam phone calls and voicemails daily. Mostly all the same, like "your $20K loan is almost ready".
One time, I picked up, and it was this seemingly incredibly rude person who sounded real but continue talking in a pushy manner without stopping despite what I said.
It's insane getting so many calls all the time like I owe them a bunch of money or something. Anyone else get this?
I got 3 calls purportedly from hubspot in the last week, from 3 different caller ids. It wasn’t a robocall, the same voice. I just hung up the first two times and the third asked him to stop calling. Incredible. I only answered the calls because I was expecting a call from an unknown number.
This matches my experience.
The US seems to have completely given up on protecting its public phone network against abuse, while at the same time relying on phone numbers as the primary identifying key and authentication method for humans in countless business processes.
It took years (if not decades) of regulatory neglect to get that bad; I doubt there’s an easy fix at this point. It’s really concerning.
It's not a prefect system but I don't use a landline and set unknown incoming numbers to silent unless I'm actually expecting a call. Someone important trying to call can always leave a message but the spammers never have.
2 replies →
>use only Whatsapp
WhatsApp here in India has so much spam now. With ads, I am starting to think these spam are just ads sold by WhatsApp.
> that it looks just like an Apple system notification and it disappears without a trace afterward
Probably so-called SMS flash messages. They're shown as overlay popups on Android too.
Probably they use flash sms(class 0 messages)