Sprint PCS mail and SPAM???!!!

[bmuse221]

I created my sprintpcs.com email address a few days ago. I have LITERALLY not used it yet. And already I am receiving 15-30 spam messages per day!!

They all seem to originate from servers with a variation of "raveon" in the name (raveondeals.com, 4all.raveondeals.net, etc) -- and the originating network provider for EVERY SINGLE SPAM is servint.com.

(1) Where are the spammer(s) getting my UNUSED, JUST-CREATED email address??? Is Sprint's network or system somehow making it publicly accessible somewhere? :confused:

(2) Does Sprint not have ANY spam filtering for their PCS Mail, which we are paying $15 a month for? I can't find anything on the PCS site.

(3) This stupid spam is using up all my notify-messages! I had my account set to notify my phone whenever I received an email -- a feature I need to use for business -- but I've had to turn it off because of all the spam! :furious:

(4) Is anyone else having this spam problem???

(5) What is this servint.com? They seem to be just a hosting provider, but for every single spam to originate from it seems highly suspicious.

My spam filtering software on my PC has intelligent spam-reporting capability, so once I get my sprintpcs email through Outlook, I can at least report it. But what a huge hassle. Every other service out there offers some kind of spam-filtering; is Sprint that far behind everyone else?

Thanks for any insight. I'm new to PCS Mail and Vision, and am just really surprised at this immediate onslaught of junk mail to a brand-new, unused address.

[Elvio]

I had got some spam mail from some other website which is selling viagra that I don't need in the middle of the night. :eyebrow: I were awakened by the message alert :mad:

[sheureka]

I've had my sprint email address for 3 years, and never been spammed. - sheureka

[shkh00]

Iv had my account since Feb and Iv NEVER got spam. I take that back, I was set up to get yahoo alerts, and I got ALOT of them and changed my yahoo filter, but that was not spam, LOL.

[virgiliomi]

I've never used or published my Sprint PCS email address, yet it constantly gets spam. I don't use it anyway, since I just check my personal email account using an IMAP email program on my phone, but I've been a sprint customer for a few years and I've never been able to keep that mailbox from filling up with spam.

[pcstech]

PCS mail is free. You are not paying for it. Any Sprint customer can sign up for email including non data handsets. Also there are spam filters you can set up on the manage page for email. Also, this was not created to be used for business.

[bmuse221]

PCS mail is free. You are not paying for it. Any Sprint customer can sign up for email including non data handsets. Also there are spam filters you can set up on the manage page for email. Also, this was not created to be used for business.

Wow, pcstech. Pretty harsh reply there. Hm:

(1) I'm paying $15 a month for Vision to be able to access my PCS mail from my smartphone. Presumably those Sprint customers are paying for some kind of Sprint service? Then the email isn't free. It's very nice that other Sprint users can sign up for Sprint email, but those of us with Vision phones are paying to access it.

(2) Those aren't spam filters. They are just filters. Surely you know that spammers forge email addresses and randomly generate text. Are you suggesting creating a new filter for every one of the dozens of randomly-generated spams that flood our inboxes, the exact email addresses & subjects & domains of which will never be repeated again? Please.

SPAM filters, such as those used by GoDaddy (SpamXPloder), ATT Worldnet, Earthlink, and most other POP3 providers are designed to recognize, learn, and actually cut down on spam when it hits their server, before it gets to the user's inbox. And while nothing's foolproof, of course, they do actually work. It's surprising that Sprint doesn't have them -- and if they do, then they don't advertise it and they're not working.

Let's say for argument's sake that my unused, brand-new email address has already been randomly generated by a spammer. Shouldn't any kind of basic spam filter be able to recognize subjects like "LOOKING FOR 100 PEOPLE TO MAKE RICH", "GOVERNMENT DONT WANT ME TO SELL IT", "INCREASE YOUR ODDS OF GETTING LAID", "100S OF MEDS NO PRESCRIPTION REQUIRED", "YOUNGEST XXX TEENS ON THE NET"? (Actual titles, and these don't include the scrambled ones, like "V1AGRA NO PR3SCRIPTION QA REQU1RED".)

Some people have apparently never received spam on their Sprint email, which is great. But for those of us who have, and who are awakened in the night by our phones notifying us that spam has arrived, and who use battery life and time downloading dozens of useless spam and porn messages, and whose monthly message-notification allotment is being used up by this junk mail -- we'd like Sprint to do something about it, like so many other providers already do.

(3) I'm a writer. I don't own a business, but I do use my sprintpcs.com email as a contact so that I can be immediately reachable. And no matter what reason someone wants to be accessible, business or personal, we shouldn't be penalized or charged for the notification messages generated by spam coming through Sprint's swiss-cheese servers. My message count for the month is already half-gone, and I'm 6 days into my billing cycle. Of the 50+ messages that have been used up, only 5 were non-spam. And I'm not having much luck getting Sprint to credit the messages back either, even though they're able to pull up my account and look at the spam for themselves right there on the phone.

I've been a Sprint customer for many years, and have no desire to switch. Nor should I have to. But look at a number of other spam-related posts; it's obvious that something/someone compromised the Sprint mail relays at some point. That is Sprint's responsibility.

When Sprint gives us free Vision access to our "free" email, and unlimited incoming messages without charging us extra, THEN we'll have less to complain about. Even those of us who never surf the web, download ringers or games, or use SMS messages have to pay the full $15/month just to check our email. For that, we expect a little from Sprint's end.

[bmuse221]

Let's say for argument's sake that AOL -- who also gives its users "free" email, with their 23.95 monthly access plans -- only allowed a certain number of incoming emails (say, 100 a month) for its users, after which they charged you for every incoming email.

Now, let's say you received 80 spams, completely unsolicited junk mail. Suddenly, after 20 regular emails, you're being charged for every single message, INCLUDING the junk ones.

Do you think users would have a problem with that?

Yep.

If an ISP is going to charge its users for incoming messages, it had BETTER have something in place to make sure those messages are not spam. Otherwise, it had better provide unlimited messages. And when spam DOES get through, unsolicited and unwanted by the user, the ISP cannot count these against the user OR charge for them.

It's not rocket science.

[Looselips]

I had to change my sprint email address cuz I was overun with spam. Had new address about 3 months so far and the inbox has been clean...knock on wood. You probably got my old address, LOL! I realize now that my mistake was I had a too simple an email address before. for example: tom@sprintpcs.com...tina@sprintpcs.com... you get the point. Those kind of addy's are on all spammers lists.

Always make your address -unique- and use a yahoo/hotmail address for issues that might generate spam. ;)

[Looselips]

Having your phone notify you of all incoming email will only become very annoying. Set the notifications for just important people's email.

[Slick5300]

I have never used my sprint pcs mail, but after reading this i decided to check it. My first time checking it, and there were hundreds of spam messages in the inbox. Pretty crazy because i have never used or given out the address.

[mikewest]

I remember that sprint used to have a feature on the webmail page for this where you could block mail by keywords, and it would not send you a notification for those blocked emails on your phone. they changed it a long time ago, and i was forced to abandon the email account due to 500-1000 spam mails a day(and NO this is *NOT* an exaggeration)... I called CLAIRE about a year ago, and was told that if I wanted "Advanced email support, or spam free email - I should get email from an email provider, not a cell phone provider".... Look at the thumbs up icon, and imagine a differnet finger up, that is how I felt about Sprint PCS at the time.

I have noticed recently, I only get 30 or so a week now. I think Sprint might finally be doing something about it. I do find it odd however that half of the spam mail i still receive is addressed to another username, as opposed to my own.

[someguy1999]

PCS mail is free. You are not paying for it. Any Sprint customer can sign up for email including non data handsets. Also there are spam filters you can set up on the manage page for email. Also, this was not created to be used for business.


I beg to differ a bit... I recently had an LG1200, with no Vision capabilities. Sure I signed up for the free e-mail address, but it wouldn't let me access it (via my home computer) because my phone wasn't capable of viewing that information.

Also, It's not free if notifications count against you... For $15, you should get free e-mail notification I think. (Unlimited SMS should be included too, but that's another thread.)

[StevenJW]

Wirelessly posted (Sanyo 8100: Mozilla/4.0 (MobilePhone SCP-8100/US/1.0) NetFront/3.0 MMP/2.0)

PCS mail is free. You are not paying for it. Any Sprint customer can sign up for email including non data handsets. Also there are spam filters you can set up on the manage page for email. Also, this was not created to be used for business.


I beg to differ a bit... I recently had an LG1200, with no Vision capabilities. Sure I signed up for the free e-mail address, but it wouldn't let me access it (via my home computer) because my phone wasn't capable of viewing that information.

Also, It's not free if notifications count against you... For $15, you should get free e-mail notification I think. (Unlimited SMS should be included too, but that's another thread.)

The cost of the email has nothing to do with the cost of notifications. I can get notifications from Hotmail or Yahoo. Should these also be free?

[Ekinchheng]

I did recived some spam, I think its because of some focus uploaders you haved used, Since you DO have to put your phone number in. I should suggest you use a focus uploader you trust (even if they says they do not sell your #). I would just use uploaders that most people use like this site has.

[madsexy]

When I first signed up with Sprint, they had a section on their PCSMail website that offered FREE notifications to your PCS phone for a limited time. I didn't think much of it and passed on it. It was taken off shortly thereafter and then I wasn't able to sign up for it.

By testing the different options, I discovered that by using the first option, "forward to another email address" the messages don't count agains SMS, but if you use the last option "send notification to PCS Phone" they do.

So my weather, NFL alerts, etc., go to my "user@sprintpcs.com" address which then forwards to my cell. These don't count agains SMS. At least not for me.

For the person that said they use OUTLOOK to read PCS mail, can you tell us what the settings are for the PCS mail servers? I'd love to be able to do that!

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