News

We at Nobody's Business first got spammed on our BlackBerry about three weeks ago. Since then, we have received scores of the junk messages. Some pretend to tout a penny stock (though there's no contact to call) and many more are reams of pure nonsense text -- about 11 kilobytes of it in a single message, with a half dozen system-jamming attachments. Turns out, we are one of thousands of BlackBerry users who have suddenly found themselves paying in costly kilobytes for the privilege of receiving junk mail on their handsets. Tech forums on BlackBerrys are filling up with postings about the new annoyance. One Cingular customer in the U.S. claimed to "know" that the sudden onslaught -- which seems to have started universally on Nov. 10 or 11 -- was the result of a server at Research In Motion, which makes the handhelds, being hacked. "It's just not true," says a RIM spokesman, who requested his name not be used. "It's just speculation."

RIM is taking the position that this is just part of a recent spike in the volume of regular spam e-mail experienced worldwide in which spammers employ images and other tricks to successfully get around existing content filters.

But the attack on BlackBerrys differs in one aspect from regular e-mail spam in that most BlackBerry customers pay their service provider for every kilobyte of content that lands on their device. At Rogers Wireless, complaining customers (of which there have been "a couple of hundred," according to the company) are being promised a rebate on their kilobyte usage on their next bill to cover the spam. Rogers is estimating an average of six unwanted messages a day. That rebate, however, will only apply to customers who call in. Beyond that, Rogers and other service providers are essentially saying it is RIM's problem and up to that company to fix it. Taanta Gupta, vice-president of communications at Rogers, said yesterday that RIM had largely fixed the problem over the weekend -- although at about the time she said that another BlackBerry junk message landed at Nobody's Business.

Over at RIM, its spokesman says the firm is "making the necessary adjustments to our filters." He also suggests the problem is minimal because the spam messages are two kb each, so BlackBerry owners can tell that they're spam and aren't charged if they don't open them.

Until six months ago, there was no spam filtering on BlackBerry accounts at all. But, he says, it "has been a steady and growing issue," and that the sudden onslaught that started in mid-November is "coincidental," though it is affecting "anybody with a blackberry.net address anywhere in the world."

Still, BlackBerry users, such as one Globe and Mail reader who e-mailed in last week, wonder just how coincidental it can be. "I say weirdly coincidental because e-mail addresses which are not used publicly or posted anywhere are all starting to get spam, and all on the 11th. I have a feeling that something is going on over at RIM."

nobodys-business@sympatico.ca