Apanatchi Mobile Spam

I received a spam message today on my phone that was really clever and bloody annoying.

It came from "Apanatchi" offering me a free ringtone.

The details revealed it to be a WAP Push message.

WAP Pushes are messages sent to a mobile phone that takes the user to an external WAP site where they can download content easily without having to enter a long URL into their phone. They are really useful, but it's a shame to see them now being used for spam.

Opening the message takes you a WAP site hosted on the IP addres 195.74.152.83. A quick WHOIS for 195.74.152.83 shows it to owned by a company called Wireless Information Network Ltd and hosted by Rednet.

When you select your free ringtone, the terms and conditions show that this is really a spam. You are signing up for "promotional" messages, and also a subscription ringtone service that costs you 1.50UKP every 5 days.

The WAP site you are taken to seems very generic. It has a parameter at the end of the URL that probably relates to the recipients phone number. I've masked mine out in the images on this page so I am not signed up for too much junk by unwary readers.

I was particularly annoyed with this spam. Unsolicited junk to my phone is a massive invasion of privacy. I wonder how many people have been caught out with this?

I'll be contacting Ofcom, Wireless Information Network Ltd and my phone operator Orange about this. Let's see what they have to say...

UPDATE: 23/12/2004

I've heard back from Lianne at Wireless Information Network Ltd who says the promotion is run by a company called Venista. They can be contacted directly on 0870 609 1720. Very sneaky, if you call them, then they make a profit as 0870 numbers generate 2p of revenue a minute for their owners.

If you are being charged for unwanted downloads by Venista as a result of their spam, I'd suggest giving ICSTIS a call, as they regulate premium numbers (not 0870 though) and mobile short codes.