The convenience offered by MM1 and MM4 messaging can be abused by users sending spam or other unwanted messages. Often, the same message will be sent by multiple subscribers. The message can be spam, viral marketing, or worm-generated messages. MMS duplicate prevention can help prevent this type of abuse by keeping track of the messages being sent.

Duplicate message protection for MM1 messages prevents multiple subscribers from sending duplicate messages to your MMSC. Duplicate message protection for MM4 messages prevents another service provider from sending duplicate messages from the same subscriber to your MMSC. This can help prevent a potential flood that would otherwise become widespread between carriers.

The FortiOS Carrier unit keeps track of the sent messages. If the same message appears more often than the threshold value you configure, then action is taken. Possible actions are logging the duplicates, blocking or intercepting duplicate messages, archiving the duplicate messages, and sending an alert to inform an administrator that duplicates are occurring.

With this highly configurable system, you can prevent the transmission of duplicate messages when there are more than you determine is acceptable.

For detailed configuration options, see “Duplicate Message”.