Beware of 4Smartphone.com

johnnymac · #1 (**permalink**) 06-04-2008, 10:41 PM

Beware of 4smartphone. I don't not think that your data is safe. I recently have had a few issues with their service and contacted their support. Essentially, their IT support asked for my password.... Twice!! -in two separate emails.

Here is a copy of the correspondance:

Me: I have tried getting my 4smartphone account to work on OWA with IE 7.0 and 8 beta on several machines but I'm only able to get OWA Light to work. I've also made sure that on all of my test computers all activex options are enabled. Still I'm getting nothing. I has been like this since about a month after my switch to Exchange 2007.

I would really like to correct this. 4Smartphone's rates have gotten pretty steep recently and I'm very tempted to switch to another solution after being a customer for several years.
Thank you

Them: Dear John,

Thank you for using 4SmartPhone.
Send us your password so we will logon to your account and we will verify .
Please do not hesitate to contact us again if necessary.

Best regards,

Me: You must be kidding! Im not sending you my password

Them: Dear John,
Thank you for using 4SmartPhone.
Unfortunately we cannot do anything. We do not have access to your password, and therefore the only way we can verify what a user claims is by asking for it something that you are the first user to refuse doing in more than 3 years.

Anyone who knows anything about IT Security knows that you do not give your password out to anyone. I can't believe that 4smartphone actually thinks that this is normal.

johnnymac · #2 (**permalink**) 06-04-2008, 10:52 PM

So, with that being said, (And vented) what is the best company for a hosted exchange account? 4Smartphone is about $11.00 a month which is really way too expensive. Any ideas? Thanks!

BlkCat · #3 (**permalink**) 06-05-2008, 01:04 AM

Just for general knowledge, if they use MYSQL I'm pretty sure they -CANNOT- retrieve your password if it is over 4 characters long. I could be wrong, but if you pay for the service then they already have your credit card number, why so secretive about your password? What they COULD do if they wanted was change your password in the database and take over the account completely, so I highly doubt this.

markgamber · #4 (**permalink**) 06-05-2008, 12:18 PM

Most places use a security device that doesn't encrypt your password but simply makes a hash from it. It can't be "reversed" to derive your password and your password isn't actually stored anywhere. Beyond that, they have your email and could change the password on you and do whatever they wanted with your account if they so desired. Finally, I've never heard of anyone having a problem with this company so it seems a pretty safe bet that you're being excessively paranoid for no reason. If you use that password for other things that you're afraid they might access, you're the one that you should beware of, not some email hosting company.

alabij · #5 (**permalink**) 06-05-2008, 12:23 PM

From someone who deals with e-mails password/reset and such asking for the password is customery. However, the difference is that I do mine over the phone. Obviously 4smartphone is more of an online support than vocal over the phone support.

They have to log into your account on their system to see if they are experiencing or can recreate the same issue.

Remember, just because you claim that you've tried it on numerous PC's doesn't mean they have to take your word for it. The issue you reported is %99 of the time a user or a browser issue.