“Black list”: mobile operator service or mobile application?

There is no need to talk about the “black list” on the Internet - we have long been aware of the functionalities implemented, for example, in various mail services, and once intended to filter spam and incoming mail from unwanted users. Over time, however, postal services learned how to automatically filter spam, and the need for “blacklists” has practically disappeared. “Black lists” work in all social networks: we can add any user to the “black list” and protect ourselves from unwanted messages, although they also do not solve the problem of spam.
Spam is poured not only on the Internet, but also on mobile phones - in recent years there have been many spammers who send annoying advertising or informational SMS messages to subscribers. Conventionally, they can be divided into three groups:

• Spammers "from nowhere", sending advertising messages about various products and services;
• "Subscription" to spam. Companies in which subscribers already made purchases (or used their services) and provided them with their phone number (for example, often the store asks for your mobile phone number to receive a discount card);
• Actually, the operator himself, whose subscriber is serviced, sends out advertising information about new services and tariffs.

As a rule, such SMS-messages as the sender have either a short numeric number or an alphabetic number consisting of Latin letters.
But spam is not always possible to receive only in the form of SMS, sometimes the representatives of the companies themselves call from the call center and offer to use their services. Most often these are banks offering already approved loans or credit cards on “special favorable terms” only for you and only for a limited time.
Getting rid of SMS spam was quite problematic, not to mention the calls, but the solution seemed to be found: relatively recently, a new Black List service from the mobile operators themselves appeared. In addition, there have long existed and mobile applications that are currently implemented for almost all smartphone platforms. What to choose? Let's take a look at what operators offer and how mobile apps work.

Let's start, perhaps, with the Black List service , which appeared relatively recently to almost all Moscow operators, except MTS.

The “Black List” service has several drawbacks, and it can hardly be considered a means of protecting against spam - firstly , it is paid, and secondly , the operators do not allow entering the short and alphabetical numbers from the “blacklist” from which it usually comes SMS spam . Thus, with the help of the operator, we can protect ourselves only from unwanted subscribers, and not completely, since in most cases it remains possible to receive SMS messages from them. The service works as follows: during an outgoing call, the subscriber who is on the “black list” will hear the robot’s automatic answer that the called subscriber is not available or the number is incorrectly dialed.

Possibilities of the service provided by operators:

')
Mobile applications from the “Black lists” category appeared much earlier than the operators of the same name, and, judging by the number of downloads, they are in quite wide demand. Among these applications, there are several subtypes: “black lists” only for SMS, they are also only for calls, and the best are for those and others.
The principle of operation of such applications is as follows. An SMS message from a blocked contact is physically delivered to the phone, but you will not see it on the screen as a normal incoming message - it will remain invisible to you. And only in the application itself (in the “journal”) it will be possible to find a blocked message and read it if such a desire arises. However, some applications allow you to customize them so that messages are deleted altogether - immediately upon receipt or after a certain period of time.

The general scheme of filtering calls is about the same as in the service of operators. The subscriber whom you have entered in the “black list” calls you, you do not hear the call, and the caller in your mobile hears “busy”, as if at this moment you are talking to someone . Again, in the "journal" you can view a list of callers who were rejected by the application.

Advantages of applications (generally, depends on the specific application):

• Available for almost all operating systems (platforms);
• You can find free programs for “black lists”;
• The maximum number of numbers in blacklists is unlimited (some trial versions of applications impose restrictions);
• The ability to filter not only calls, but also SMS-messages ;
• The ability to add to the "black list" both short numbers and alphabetic;
• The ability to block calls from the "hidden" numbers.

Disadvantages:

• Work only on smartphones and communicators;
• In some cases, it is required to hack the phone to allow the application to access the system files;
• Some applications skip the first beep when an incoming call from a blocked contact;
• Many of these applications are paid, but it is much more profitable to purchase a paid application than to pay a subscription fee to the operator.

Among the most famous of this category are the following applications:
iPhone: Blacklist , iBlackList , MCleaner , Blacklist Pro ;
Android: Blacklist , Blacklist Pro , Extreme Call Blocker Droid , Kaspersky Mobile Security ;
BlackBerry: Antair BlackBerry Call Screener , Kaspersky Mobile Security ;
Symbian: Best Blacklist , MCleaner .

The advantages of mobile applications are obvious, even despite some disadvantages. Still, to protect yourself from spam, try not to leave your numbers anywhere, although even this does not guarantee that they will not fall into the hands of spammers.