What is BlueJacking

The phrase BlueJacking is attributed to Ajack – a member of the Esato boards who ‘discovered’ it back in 2002. In order to understand BlueJacking you need to understand Bluetooth.

Bluetooth technology is an open specification that enables short-range wireless connections between devices like laptop computers, mobile phones, printers & digital cameras. Bluetooth wireless technology uses a globally available frequency band (2.4GHz) for worldwide compatibility. In a nutshell, Bluetooth technology enables your digital peripherals to talk to each other without needing wires and cables.

BlueJacking is a new term used to define the activity of sending anonymous messages to other Bluetooth equipped devices (typically PDAs and Mobile Phones). Whilst the ability to receive such messages can be disabled or the Bluetooth functionality of the device can be switched off, the fun nature of BlueJacking is likely to encourage people to paticipate and to enjoy the new phenomenen.

It is important to point out at this point that it is vitually impossible to catch a ‘virus’ from BlueJacking and no damage can occur to your phone or PDA (they cannot read your email or access your data via BlueJacking).

How to BlueJack?

Assuming that you now have a Bluetooth phone in your hands, the first thing to do is to make sure that Bluetooth is enabled.

Now, remember that Bluetooth only works over short distances, so you need to find a crowd. BlueJacking is very new so not everyone will have a Bluetooth phone so the bigger the crowd the more likely you will have of finding a match. The Tube, on the train, in a Cafe or standing in line are all good places to start.

Some good places to bluejack:
- Busy shopping centre
- Train Station
- High Street
- On a train/ tube/ bus
- Cinema
- Café/ restaurant/ pub
- Mobile phone shop

You will now need to create a new Contact in your Phone’s contacts – however rather than putting someones name in the Name field you write your short message instead – so for example rather than creating a contact called Bob Jones you would write – “Hey, you have been BlueJacked!” instead

Now select the new contact and from the Menu of the phone choose “Send via Bluetooth”. This is a facility available within the Mobile Phone that was designed to send a Contact to someone else, however we are now going to use it to send our message that was contained in the Name field of the contact.

Your phone will start to search the airwaves for other devices that within range. If you are lucky you will see a list of them appear, or it will say that it cannot find any. If the latter happens then relocate to another crowd or wait a while and try again. If you have a list of found devices then let the fun begin.

Unfortunately, almost every Bluetooth enabled device will not yet be configured with a useful name – so you are going to have to guess. Try one at random and look around to see who grabs their phone and then looks perplexed when they read your message If you want to name your Phone so it appears as a name in the list on a BlueJackers phone.

You can build a library of contacts with predefined messages.

We cannot stress enough however that this is a FUN thing to do – don’t abuse the service or people as they can simply disable Bluetooth plus if you send abusive or defamatory messages you are liable to prosecution.

What if I don’t want to be BlueJacked?

That’s quite simple – just disable Bluetooth when you don’t need it and no-one can BlueJack you.

BlueJacking is meant to FUN! so make sure it is.

Here are some common sense rules below.

• Don’t send abusive messages
• Don’t threaten anyone
• Don’t put your personal information in a BlueJack message
• Don’t reveal yourself to the ‘victim’
• Do disable BlueTooth if you don’t want to be BlueJacked

What do I do if I am BlueJacked?

Whilst you can choose to “Accept” the message it’s best to avoid doing so. If Accepted then the message will be added into your own Contact Phone Book and that could fill up quite quickly. If the sender has added any additional information into the Contact that they sent you then you can only see this by Accepting it and then opening up the new Contact. However as the idea behind BlueJacking is sending simple messages there is nothing to be gained by storing it. Simply choose “Delete” or “Erase” and then get your own back on them.