News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Malicious Use of the HTML5 Vibrate API by Udo on Friday January 10, 2014 @07:26AM (#7036279)
It doesn't even have to be a website. Phone scammers have been doing stuff like this for ages with pretty low tech. A general rule of dealing with spam like this is "if the source is unknown and it's from a pretty woman or an investment firm, it's a scam". My phone's black list is quite long.

Of course, HTML-based ones can reach a larger number of users with little investment, so it's reasonable to expect this will occur more frequently in the future.

Re:Malicious Use of the HTML5 Vibrate API by andyroid on Friday January 10, 2014 @09:05AM (#7036566)
How do you know if the woman on the other end is pretty? :)

There's a great app for Android (in Sweden, I suppose there are similar apps for other countries) that searches digital phone registries on an incoming call and after about a second displays whatever data it has found on the incoming call screen (such as Telemarketing Company, Salesperson, etc) It also uses some form of rating system so if enough users have flagged a number, it will warn me about it. This has saved me countless of calls.

Re:Malicious Use of the HTML5 Vibrate API by Shaanie on Friday January 10, 2014 @01:07PM (#7038211)
Which app, if you don't mind me asking?
Re:Malicious Use of the HTML5 Vibrate API by andyroid on Friday January 10, 2014 @04:42PM (#7039680)
It's called "Vem ringde" ("Who called" in swedish). I believe the iOS does not grant enough permissions during an incoming call so when using the app on an iPhone one can only do the lookup after the call has finished (answered or missed) which explains the name (past tense). This is of course inferior to the Android functionality, but this might have changed since last time I checked.
Re:Malicious Use of the HTML5 Vibrate API by cangelis on Friday January 10, 2014 @10:24PM (#7041391)
Re:Malicious Use of the HTML5 Vibrate API by andyroid on Saturday January 11, 2014 @07:04AM (#7042387)
Thanks cangelis! It's not really clear (or I'm a lousy reader) wether it displays the information while the call is incoming or only when you've picked up (or missed) the call. If it's the former, I'm glad to hear that it's possible for iOS too!