My God, so much spam via SMS

[Luke Drillbrain]

I'm using chompSMS, and have for years. I'm currently on a Samsung Galaxy Note 9. I don't even do all that much texting, but it's still an important app. Lately, however, I've been frustrated by the number of spam SMS texts I keep getting. Most of them are addressed to like a zillion different phone numbers. Then I get all the "STOP" messages from other people, annoyed by the spam, and I can't really blame them. It's still annoying.

Is there a good anti-spam SMS app or a plug-in I could use with chomp? If I could just tell it to reject any messages that are being sent to more than 5 phone numbers, that would kill off most of them. I don't normally text more than one person at a time. If I do text more than one, it's 5 people max.

 

[ocnbrze]

I'm using chompSMS, and have for years. I'm currently on a Samsung Galaxy Note 9. I don't even do all that much texting, but it's still an important app. Lately, however, I've been frustrated by the number of spam SMS texts I keep getting. Most of them are addressed to like a zillion different phone numbers. Then I get all the "STOP" messages from other people, annoyed by the spam, and I can't really blame them. It's still annoying.

Is there a good anti-spam SMS app or a plug-in I could use with chomp? If I could just tell it to reject any messages that are being sent to more than 5 phone numbers, that would kill off most of them. I don't normally text more than one person at a time. If I do text more than one, it's 5 people max.

as soon as you see that choose the ignore option for the group text. this should at least stop all the responding messages from others in the group.

i have not received one of those for months now. i don't think i did anything special to get rid of them. i do have Youmail, but that is to stop robocalls. i don't think it will work on text messages.

 

[puppykickr]

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.kaliturin.blacklist/

 

[svim]

Yeah, it's important to NOT respond to those spam texts. The a-holes who are the source of this problem rely upon lists of phone numbers they obtain in bulk, and then they use scripts to just automatically send their crap out to all of us. Once you respond in any way, that just places your phone number into an 'active' listing so at that point your phone number goes from being just a possible target to a probable one. Using 'Stop' or whatever is a response, and that's what they feed off of. Really, when you get a text message from an unknown source, delete it. Don't respond, don't open it, just delete it. Since apparently your phone number is also now being used to attack others in your Contact list, keep in mind that even if you do take active steps to block incoming spam messages this applies to just your device. If your friends, family, and acquaintances continue receiving spam texts from your number, it might become a matter where you need to get a new number from your carrier. But hopefully at a while this matter will fade away.
In your text messaging app, if there's an option to block messages from unknown sources (not in your contacts) you might want to enable it. Also, depending on which carrier you use, there might be a service they provide so log into your account on their web site. You should also add your phone number to the national Do Not Call Registry.
https://fightingrobocalls.ctia.org/#section-05-resources
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-report-spam-text-messages

 

[puppykickr]

My point in not responding goes even deeper.

Many times, these e-mails warn of a security breech or attempt thereof.

They give a link for you, and when you press it a very familiar (think Google sign-in) page appears.

You enter your e-mail and password, thinking that you are logging in to see what is going on.

But the page is fake, and now whoever set this whole thibg up has your password and access to the account.

That is why you never respond to these.

Mark it as spam, and eventually you will get enough of them that you won't get so many in your inbox anymore.

I get about 1,000 spam craps a week.

 

[Hadron]

Wow - we get the odd spam text this side of the pond, but at least they are bulk texts rather than group texts (so you don't receive replies from other people). I suspect that's just because those are cheaper here (and maybe it's the other way round on your side, which is why you get group spam), though for phishing it would be an obvious give-away if you they were visibly sending the message to other people as well as you.

The old rule "never click on a link in an email" applies to texts too. Indeed I get the impression that the scammers are putting more effort into text scams at the moment.

BTW the big one here recently has been a two-stage scam: send a text claiming to be from a delivery company who, for whatever reason, require you to pay a fee to deliver/re-deliver a package. If someone falls for it, the next day you contact them pretending to be their bank (they now know which bank, after all), inform them that you've seen a suspicious transaction (the small fee they paid), confirm to them that this was a scam, tell them that their account is vulnerable, that others have had their accounts cleaned-out, and try to scare them into "temporarily" transferring their funds into a "safe" account while the bank's security team sorts it out...