Today Bell Mobility is announcing, along with Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T, a commitment to combat SMS spam through the GSMA’s Spam Reporting Service (SRS) powered by Cloudmark. Basically what the service does is provide users a recourse for reporting spam messages by forwarding them to shortcode ‘7726’ (which spells ‘SPAM’ on most devices). The SRS aggregates the most virulent spambots and tries to cut them off at the source.
“Around the world, increasing numbers of consumers are falling victim to spam. Mobile network operators are working hard defending against these threats to continue to protect the quality of the mobile service and reinforce subscriber trust,” said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA. “By having major mobile operators in North America actively participating in the service, spammers and fraudsters will find this region an even more difficult target for their malicious activity.”
The GSMA correlates live spam attacks, and provides the information to member carriers, who will be able to take appropriate action before proliferation gets out of control. They are also providing an Android app to monitor and follow existing spam attacks, depending on the carrier.
“Industry-leading network security is essential to an ongoing positive experience for our customers,” said Nauby Jacob, Vice President of Services, Products and Content at Bell Mobility “We are proud to work with the GSMA on this important effort to ensure Bell’s wireless networks remain among the safest and most secure in the world.”
There is no word on whether other Canadian carriers are going to join the fray, but it seems like a low-risk, high-return prospect for everyone involved. And when carriers work together, consumers win.
Source: GSMA
Via: PhoneScoop
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