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Bluejacking is the sending of unsolicited messages over

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

to Bluetooth-enabled devices such as

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

s, PDAs or laptop computers, sending a

vCard vCard, also known as VCF ("Virtual Contact File"), is a file format standard for electronic business cards. vCards can be attached to e-mail messages, sent via Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), on the World Wide Web, instant messaging, N ...

which typically contains a message in the name field (i.e., for bluedating) to another Bluetooth-enabled device via the

OBEX The obex () is the point in the human brain at which the fourth ventricle narrows to become the central canal of the spinal cord. Cerebrospinal fluid can flow from the fourth ventricle into the obex. In anatomical studies, the obex has been fo ...

protocol. Bluetooth has a very limited range, usually around on mobile phones, but laptops can reach up to with powerful ( Class 1) transmitters.

Origins

Bluejacking was reportedly first carried out between 2001 and 2003 by a Malaysian IT consultant who used his phone to advertise

Ericsson (), commonly known as Ericsson (), is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Ericsson has been a major contributor to the development of the telecommunications industry and is one ...

to a single

Nokia 7650 The Nokia 7650 is a consumer-oriented GSM mobile phone developed by Nokia,announced in 19 November 2001 and released in June 2002. Belonging to the fashion and experimental (List of Nokia products#Fashion and Experimental Series .287xxx Series.29 ...

phone owner in a Malaysian bank. He also invented the name, which he claims is an amalgam of

and ''ajack'', his username on Esato, a Sony Ericsson fan online forum. ''Jacking'' is, however, an extremely common shortening of "hijack', the act of taking over something. Ajack's original posts are hard to find, but references to the exploit are common in 2003 posts. Another user on the forum claims earlier discovery, reporting a near-identical story to that attributed to ''Ajack'', except they describe bluejacking 44 Nokia 7650 phones instead of one, and the location is a garage, seemingly in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, rather than a Malaysian Bank. Also, the message was an insult to Nokia owners rather than a Sony Ericsson advertisement.

Usage

Bluejacking is usually not very harmful, except that bluejacked people generally don't know what has happened, and so may think that their phone is malfunctioning. Usually, a bluejacker will only send a text message, but with modern phones it's possible to send images or sounds as well. Bluejacking has been used in

guerrilla marketing Guerrilla marketing is an Advertising, advertisement strategy in which a company uses surprise and/or unconventional interactions in order to promote a Product (business), product or Service (business), service. It is a type of publicity. The ...

campaigns to promote advergames. The actual message itself doesn't deploy any

malware Malware (a portmanteau of ''malicious software'')Tahir, R. (2018)A study on malware and malware detection techniques . ''International Journal of Education and Management Engineering'', ''8''(2), 20. is any software intentionally designed to caus ...

to the software; rather, it is crafted to elicit a response from the user or add a new contact and can be seen as more of a prank than an attack. These messages can evoke either annoyance or amusement in the recipient. Users typically possess the ability to reject such messages, and this tactic is frequently employed in confined environments such as planes, trains, and buses. However, some forms of DoS Disruptions are still possible, even in modern devices, by sending unsolicited pairing requests in rapid succession; this becomes disruptive because most systems display a full screen notification for every connection request, interrupting every other activity, especially on less powerful devices. Bluejacking is also confused with Bluesnarfing, which is the way in which mobile phones are illegally hacked via Bluetooth.

Companies

BluejackQ

BlueJackQ is a website dedicated to bluejacking. The website contains a few bluejacking stories taken from the site's forum. The website also includes software that can be used for bluejacking and guides on how to bluejack which are slightly out of date but the basic principle still applies to most makes of phone. Its forum has 4,000 registered users and 93,050 posts.bluejackQ.com :: Index
The website has been featured in many news articles.bluejackQ and jellyellie in the media - bluejackQ.com
The forums were opened on the November 13, 2003 and has been the center of BluejackQ from the start. It currently has 4 moderators and has 20 different sections available to members. The areas included information about BluejackQ, reviews of mobile phones, media players, PDAs and Miscellaneous devices, general bluejacking threads and an off-topic area. The BluejackQ

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

was first released as a test version on January 15, 2006, thus becoming the first bluejacking-related podcast. Podcasts 1, 2 and 3 featured three members of the forums. The forums seem to have been unused since 2020.

Fictional reference in ''Person of Interest''

The authentic bluejacking as described here is not the same exploit which was frequently depicted in the television series '' Person of Interest''; that fictional exploit portrayed different and more invasive capabilities.

References