1. White Paper www.srustimobile.com
Srusti Mobile
Mobiles And
Risks
A case study on uses of mobile phones and
various mobile scams
September 2008
2. Mobiles and Risks
www.srustimobile.com
Mobiles and
Risks
Contents – September 2008
Section 1: Background 3
1.1 Mobile Phone Penetration 4
1.2 Text Messaging 4
Section 2: Mobile Scams 5
2.1 Introduction 6
2.2 SMS SPAM 6
2.3 Not all SMS advertising is SPAM 6
2.4 How the SCAMS work 8
2.5 Mobile Phone viruses 10
2.6 Conclusion 10
September 2008 Contents – Mobile Phones and Risks
4. Mobile Phones and Risks
www.srustimobile.com
1.1. Mobile Penetration
Worldwide mobile penetration rates are expected to reach as high as 95
per cent by 2013
from the current
level of 46 per cent.
Mobile penetration
levels have already
exceeded 100 per
cent in developed
countries such as
the UK, but global
levels are still
relatively low.
The advent of the mobile phone revolution has brought many benefits not
least of all to parents who found added peace of mind from being able to
arm their children with a means of keeping in regular touch. But it must
be alarming to find that the devices they
Today a head-teacher at hoped would make their children safer
a major secondary can be used against them. The misuse of
school in Edinburgh mobile phones and computers by children
claims that 99 per cent of has long been a growing concern. But
bullying at his school is while it is relatively simple to install
now carried out through safeguards on home computers and
mobile phones and laptops to prevent youngsters accessing
internet chatrooms. unsuitable sites and chatrooms,
regulating their use of mobile phones is
far more difficult. And as the technology and access to new services
improves it becomes impossible for many parents to keep track of how
phones are being used or misused.
Parents are often torn between their love of instant access to their
children and their loathing of others' having the same.
September 2008 Contents – Mobile Phones and Risks
5. Mobile Phones and Risks
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Cyber-bullying is a growing problem in American schools. The term
“cyberbully” refers to young people who use cell phones and other digital
devices to harass other students. The bullies’ tools are text and photos
that embarrass and unnerve kids.
Such behavior is sadly an unwelcome by-product of advances in
technology misused by inadequate youngsters who now have an easier
way of taking out their frustrations on others. ‘RespectMe’, the Scottish
Executive's new anti-bullying arm, fears in some cases that those
tormented could develop problems such as eating disorders and consider
self-harm as a result of being targeted.
1.2. Text Messaging
Millions of mobile phone users worldwide quot;The act of texting
have used text messaging to vote for their automatically removes
favorite contestants. Many teenagers prefer 10 IQ points,quot; said Paul
them to actually talking. Saffo, a technology
trend forecaster in
Almost overnight, text messages have Silicon Valley
become the preferred form of
communication for millions of people.
But even as industry calculations show that
Many Parents have people are now using mobile phones to
moved to limit the send or receive more text messages than
hours that their phone calls, those messages are coming
children may get and under increasing fire because of the danger
send text messages - they can pose by distracting those who
New York Times send them. Though there are no official
casualty statistics, there is much anecdotal
evidence that the number of fatal accidents stemming from texting while
driving, crossing the street or other activities is on the rise.
September 2008 Contents – Mobile Phones and Risks
7. Mobile Phones and Risks
www.srustimobile.com
2.1. Introduction
Using a mobile phone to send and receive text messages and/or images,
is very similar to using e-mail or instant messaging and some of the same
safety rules apply. Your mobile phone can be a direct link between you
and spammers, scammers, identity thieves, online predators and cyber-
bullies. In the following pages we discuss how it is affecting daily lives of
people.
2.2. SMS Spam
SMS messaging is getting more and more popular, with the billions of
text messages sent each year increasing steadily, the sector is soon to
become the largest form of communication, far outstripping e-mail and
snail mail. With such enormous popularity the marketers were bound to
catch on eventually to instantly and cheaply reach huge numbers of
people, and indeed they have.
2.3. Not all SMS advertising is spam
The growth of commercial SMS messages is exponential, with legitimate
companies using them for all kinds of purposes, including recruitment
and publicity.
The use of SMS messaging for marketing is obviously an attraction to
businesses because it is cheaper than standard snail mail marketing,
which often lands up in most people's waste paper bins, whereas SMS
messages have to be read. In a similar way as e-mail advertising it
requires very little infrastructure and organisation at the sending end,
unlike postal based services.
There are two kinds of commercial SMS messages, solicited and
unsolicited, if they are solicited messages you selected to receive them
and they can be a valuable tool for you, bringing information when and
where you want it. If they are unsolicited they can be a nuisance, cost
you money and lead to a host of problems. Until companies start to
September 2008 Contents – Mobile Phones and Risks
8. Mobile Phones and Risks
www.srustimobile.com
realize their obligations and enforce the rules it seems unlikely that there
will be an easy way to stop SMS SPAM with the exception blocking SMS
messages to your phone completely, or complaining directly to
companies about their unethical advertising. Both Sainsbury's Mobile and
Virgin Wines in the UK were forced to offer public apologies after trusting
a disreputable marketing company who then sent out unsolicited
communications on their behalf - and if recipients had not complained
then they would not even have known.
The SMS marketplace does not just offer employment for spammers -
con artists can find a home there too. They will text you with notifications
of prizes and offers - all designed to defraud you in some way.
Some scammers will even have the audacity to approach you in public,
ask to use your cell phone for an quot;emergencyquot; and then dial a premium
rate number that they are profiting from.
2.4. How the scams work
More and more mobile networks are offering reverse charge SMS
services that let a user be charged up to several pounds for incoming
SMS messages. The idea is to let their users make very small payments,
called micro payments, for services with their mobile quickly and easily.
To authenticate the system, and before a charged message can be sent,
a certain message must be sent to a network 'short code', a telephone
number consisting of just 4 digits which can only be accessed on that
particular network. The con artists will do anything to get you to send a
message to this number, including sending sexy messages that pretend
to be from a girlfriend, or urgent messages claiming that a loved one is
sick. They play on the same human weaknesses that made the Melissa
and Love Bug viruses so successful. As soon as you have sent the
authentication to them they are free to send you as many messages as
they like, costing over a pound each.
September 2008 Contents – Mobile Phones and Risks
9. Mobile Phones and Risks
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Of course as soon as a network has proof that such a scam is operating
they close it down, but in the meantime many innocent users have been
duped out of money, and whilst the problem is bad for pay as you go
users, who may loose al the credit on their phone, for contract users with
no spending limits in place the problem can be horrendous.
Again there is no way to stop getting these scam messages without
blocking all SMS messages coming to your phone, or moving to a
network with no reverse charge system in place. If neither of these ideas
seems attractive to you then be careful to check the number that the
message came from before hitting reply on your handset.
Never reply to text messages from people you don’t know because the
message could be SMS SPAM, a phone virus or it could be from a
predator or bully who has obtained your number from someone else or
has quot;guessedquot; your number. Some SMS SPAM messages involve
responding to a number that, when called, charges the users account
extortionate amounts. Instead, block the caller, which prevents them from
being able to call or send messages to your phone.
If someone approaches you in the street and asks to use your phone
(even if they say it is an emergency) direct them to the nearest public
phone or, in the case of an obvious emergency, dial 911 (or whatever
your regional emergency number is) for them. Do not allow the to use
your phone because they may either be trying to steal your phone or,
they may be a scammer who uses your phone to dial a premium rate
number that charges your phone account. They profit from the call and
you are left with a hefty bill.
September 2008 Contents – Mobile Phones and Risks
10. Mobile Phones and Risks
www.srustimobile.com
2.5. Mobile phone viruses
Online virus warnings about e-mail worms and trojans are familiar
enough and they are something that mobile phone users are also going
to have to consider.
We have looked at cell phone scams and SPAM and, just as we can see
evidence of the same junk that appears in our Inbox, we can expect
mobile viruses to be the next step.
It is only a matter of time. There are already viruses for the pocket PC
and palm operating system 'in the wild' and the problem is bad enough
that a virus checker, pc-cillan, has been adapted to work on mobile
devices. Without a doubt these viruses will be adapted to work on the
next generation of phones, and with the rise of always on data solutions
to next generation phones, like GPRS and UTMS, the exposure
presented to crackers is getting larger.
These problems however are being tackled at the network end, with
firewall implementation from the networks, but it remains to see how big a
problem it will be. Sensible use, the same as you would apply to e-mail
and your computer will soon have to apply to mobile phones, and as
always how exposed you are depends on the decisions you make.
2.6. Conclusion
SafMobileTM can help to eliminate the unnecessary calls, SMSs, MMSs
even filter which websites your child is allowed or denied to access from
mobile phone. Simply active parental mode only approved calls (i.e. calls
from numbers in you approve are valid and you trust them to call your
child and your chilled is allowed to call them). Every other call, SMS and
MMS will be blocked. You can even filter websites that your child is
allowed to visit using advanced content filtering.
Life can be little bit peaceful with Srusti Mobile’s SafMobileTM.
September 2008 Contents – Mobile Phones and Risks
11. This White Paper Discusses:
• The penetration of mobile phones in our lives.
• How various Mobile SCAMS work.
• How an ordinary man is venerable to the modern day Mobile Marketing.
• How the children are adopting the Mobiles more rapidly then adults.
• How to protect your child from misadventures.
Srusti Mobile
Reaching Beyond Limits
a mobile VAS Company
Headquarters: Development Office: Administration Office (Ireland):
Srusti Mobile Pvt. Ltd.#774 First Floor, Srusti Mobile Pvt. Ltd., #230A, Srusti Mobile Pvt. Ltd., #114,
nd nd
22nd A cross, 18th mail,
22 cross, 22 main Shelmartin Avenue, Fairview,
nd
3rd sector ,HSR layout,
2 sector, HSR Layout, Dublin – 3 , Co. Dublin
Bangalore-560034, India Banglaore-560034, India Ireland
Tel: +44 (0)1482 586149 Tel: +61 (02) 8705 6960 Tel: +1 212 652 5302
Fax: +44 (0)1482 323577 Fax: +61 (02) 8705 6961 Fax: +1 212 202 4684
