T-Mobile customers warned of unblockable SMS phishing attacks

I believe I have seen a few of these. The sms messages I have received has 20 recipients so you can’t just click info on the sender and block a number. However, the originator is the last item in the list, so I have blocked the last three and have not seen one since. 
 

So now I wonder if these are the type they are talking about?

Same thing here. Not sure if it’s what the article is talking about, but I have gotten a few more smishing texts recently. Always block and haven’t seen more since a flurry of 3 or 4.

Wonder if this affects any networks here in the UK?

Every now and then I get a few scam texts. Some are worryingly convincing

There should be a global block list for carriers and blocked before gets anywhere near the mobile device.

It is actually more simple than that...sort of. Way back in the late 90’s at an unnamed large phone company I worked for, we tested software that takes the indicated caller ID info, and dip back into the caller’s system’s database to see if that number is really calling the destination number. That works for most calls (there were some exceptions). BUT, the calling phone company wanted to charge for the database access, so the project kind of went dark because of cost. 

Given how bad it is today, I wonder if people would be willing to pay a fee to have verified caller id? I would pay for it. Or at least caller block when the ID does not match the caller. The tech exists to do this I thought!

Interesting. I like the sound of this and yes, if it was a small fee I would pay for this. Potentially cellular companies could offer this as one of their add-ons to your contract.

Agreed. Id be happy to pay. Seems T-Mobile and a few other cell services may be doing this now, as I get caller ID messages that say “SPAM Likely” now. Maybe if the caller ID is one of their numbers, they can tell it is not the originating caller? I am not sure what they are doing. 

The problem with global block lists is they do not do well with spoofed caller IDs. Which most spam calls are these days. I use a home “phone” service by a company called Ooma. An inexpensive VOIP service. You can get the basic service free after the cost of the interface device. Or for about $10 a month get a bunch of extras (Called ID, Voice Mail, phone app etc), which includes a “global” block list for SPAM calls. It worked great right up to the point where it did not. The problem is, if you block all the numbers of SPAM that come in (you can also one click add numbers to your own additional block list) you end up blocking legit businesses or people because the caller ID numbers are usually spoofed now.

It would be great to use technology to fix this issue.