Bluejacking

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This Siemens M75 is Bluejacking the Sony Ericsson K600i pictured below

This Sony Ericsson K600i is getting Bluejacked by the Siemens M75 pictured above

Bluejacking is the sending of unsolicited messages over Bluetooth to Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones, PDAs or laptop computers, sending a vCard which typically contains a message in the name field (i.e. for bluedating or bluechat) to another bluetooth enabled device via the OBEX protocol.

Bluetooth has a very limited range, usually around 10 metres on mobile phones, but laptops can reach up to 100 metres with powerful transmitters.

The origin of the name is disputed. It is widely believed that the term bluejacking comes from Bluetooth and hijacking. However, a bluejacker doesn't hijack anything: he or she merely uses a feature on the sender and the recipient's device. Both parties remain in absolute control over their devices, and a bluejacker will not be able to take over your phone or steal your personal information. It should be noted that "jack" on many college campuses means "to pull a prank"- to jack a dorm would be to pull a trick or prank on them - this too may be an origin of bluejacking. However, others believe it was named after a user named Ajack, who designed an early utility for bluejacking.

Bluejacking is usually technically harmless, but because bluejacked people don't know what is happening, they think 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 campaigns to promote advergames.

With the increase in the availability of bluetooth enabled devices, these devices have become vulnerable to virus attacks and even complete take over of devices through a trojan horse program.

Bluejacking is also confused with bluesnarfing which is the way in which mobile phones are illegally hacked via bluetooth; see Bluesnarfing for more details.