Apple posted a new knowledge base article on their support yesterday evening, detailing a new system for reporting spam received over their iMessage platform (as first noted by MacStories). While issues with spam message haven’t been particularly widespread so far, there has been at least one significant incident in which, according to TheNextWeb, “at least a half-dozen iOS developer and hacker community members were targeted with a series of rapid-fire texts sent over Apple’s iMessage system.”
While there hasn’t been a great deal of iMessage spam abuse so far, the same potential exists for spam over iMessage as for email spam – and as everyone who has used email knows, e-mail spam has become such a concern that it’s essentially an accepted part of using email in the first place.
With any luck, Apple’s decision to launch their iMessage spam reporting tool will be able to address problems as they arise, and prevent iMessage from becoming a haven for spammers and mass marketers. Here’s what the support document has to say (including instructions for how to report spam if it occurs):
To report unwanted iMessage messages to Apple, please send an email with the following details to: imessage.spam@icloud.com
- Include a screenshot of the message you have received.
- Include the full email address or phone number you received the unwanted message from.
- Include the date and time that you received the message.
The document even describes how to take a screenshot for the benefit of new users, or those unfamiliar with the process. The new tool serves as a supplement to the new Apple ID blocking feature in iMessage and FaceTime using OS X Mavericks or iOS 7 – a feature which users of older versions won’t have access to. This will likely work wonders for those users in the meantime.
Have you had any issues with iMessage spam? Let us know in the comments!
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