7

I normally have "Block Premium Messaging" set up on the phones in my family. This is a verizon content block the prevents you (or family members) from sending messages to premium services that charge.

Recently, I had to replace a phone that broke and when the new phone was activated the blocks I had set up were cleared. On my bill was a $9.99 charge for a text to one of these premium services.

I know nobody sent the SMS to the service to sign up for this. I suspect some application on the phone sent the SMS message. Is there a way I can find out which app on my phone is sending SMS messages to premium services? Can I view all the apps that have permission to send SMS messages?

-- update -- well, I ran RL Permissions and no downloaded apps have the Send SMS permissions. I must have already deleted the offending app or something else is going on.

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  • Don't edit the answers for updates pertaining to the question. I've moved your attempt to edit Lie's answer up here :P – Matthew Read Jun 7 '11 at 3:02
  • Oh. I guess I clicked the wrong edit link. I thought I was editing my question. Doh! – Michael Levy Jun 10 '11 at 16:27
9

Android apps can only send SMS if they have the SEND_SMS permission, there are a few permission viewers on the market:

to prevent installing rogue applications, you might want to be more cautious when installing applications and check their permissions they required before installing. If you install apps from the Android Market, then it should show you a list of permissions that the app requested, and one of the entries says "Services that cost you money".

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  • Thanks for the permission viewer links. I'll try them and see if I can find the rogue app. My son grabs my wife's phone and loves to install apps, so getting everyone in the family to read the permissions list may be tough. – Michael Levy Jun 6 '11 at 19:03
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    RL Permissions - market.android.com/… - seems pretty good. It lists apps by permissions and permissions by app. When viewing by permissions, it groups them and there is a group for "services that cost you money" and it lists all apps that have permission to "Send SMS messages". I'll test the phone in question tonight and let you know. – Michael Levy Jun 6 '11 at 19:23
  • Are you saying that (even now in 2013) one would need to install an additional (third-party) app in order to view permissions an already installed application has? – nutty about natty Sep 28 '13 at 9:40
  • Apparently, no add'l apps are required. – nutty about natty Sep 28 '13 at 9:42

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