Stop Text Message SPAM (USA)

[The_Chief]

The United States Federal Trade Commission recently announced a crackdown on senders of spam text messages and charged eight defendants with collectively sending over 180 million messages promising

 

[LilBit]

Thank You!!!!!

 

[XplosiV]

The Federal Trade Commission recently announced a crackdown on senders of spam text messages and charged eight defendants with collectively sending over 180 million messages promising

 

[The_Chief]

You know, that is a very good point. I need to revise the OP. To my knowledge, it Is USA only at this time.

Hopefully more countries will get on board with this.

 

[XplosiV]

You know, that is a very good point. I need to revise the OP. To my knowledge, it Is USA only at this time.

Hopefully more countries will get on board with this.

I sure hope so, maybe the Title too? (USA)? Just saying.

 

[pbf98]

Was getting quite a few for a while, but I haven't gotten one for a few months now. This is a great plan!

 

[Frisco]

I'm going to have to start clicking ads and entering my phone number around the internet, buying stuff from online outlets that require a phone number, etc.

I'm so out of the loop. I get no text spam.

Joking aside, if you like to order stuff online and use a "fake" phone number, you're inadvertently piping future spam to the user of that number, which is fake to you but real to somebody out there. Unless it's your own land line or other cell number that you allow as a sort of "trash bin."

Our family decided a while back to just stay away from sites that want phone numbers. We won't even enter a land line number. Shopping at real stores is more fun anyway. So is paying bills by real mail.

 

[Speed Daemon]

I can't say that I get enough text spam to be very concerned. Calls from faked phone numbers is my biggest headache right now. Most of them "come" from "800 numbers", which of course is not possible in the real world. And because toll-free numbers are nothing more than incoming-only overlays, that means that the phone companies are complicit in getting the phony CallerID misinformation to my phones.

Therein lies the rub. If the big (too big to fail ) robber baron companies are part of the crime, then do we really stand any chance of getting relief? I really doubt it. Now that smart phones are mobile data devices, it makes more sense to drop SMS altogether and use 3rd-party message passing software instead. Something like Twitter with a hush kit. Security through obscurity.

If the phone companies refuse to turn SMS off for an account, I'm sure someone can write a patch to Android that redirects all SMS traffic to /dev/null.

 

[GretScot]

The 7726 number is the same in the UK

 

[Codegerm]

I am happy to see there is a means to report spam SMS texts. I have only ever received one which was done by a computer repair store down in Tampa using SMS caster. That very day I put a call/text blocking app on my phone and white listed all my contact numbers, everything else gets deleted without even making a noise on my phone. From that point on I have never received another spam text.

My friends and I also looked up that store, found their email and inundated their inbox with complaints about their use of SMS caster.

 

[zuben el genub]

Is this just spam or that other nonsense people accidentally signed up for at $9.95 per month (bogus services). I remember Sprint and ATT having fun with all the complaints about those third party charges years ago.

 

[kate]

Is this just spam or that other nonsense people accidentally signed up for at $9.95 per month (bogus services). I remember Sprint and ATT having fun with all the complaints about those third party charges years ago.

I believe it's just for spam.

 

[zuben el genub]

Used to be that if you texted back stop, they were supposed to. Instead, you would find extra charges on your bill. I don't get many, but JHD them.

Some of them have to be using predictive. There is no real defense against that. I simply don't give out my phone #. I'm the account holder, so I use the Vulcan's phone if someone wants a number for a good reason. He uses VM, I don't. The few spams I have received have purportedly been from places I never shop or would give a number to.

 

[Codegerm]

Used to be that if you texted back stop, they were supposed to. Instead, you would find extra charges on your bill. I don't get many, but JHD them.

Some of them have to be using predictive. There is no real defense against that. I simply don't give out my phone #. I'm the account holder, so I use the Vulcan's phone if someone wants a number for a good reason. He uses VM, I don't. The few spams I have received have purportedly been from places I never shop or would give a number to.

That is why I white list my contacts on my blocking app. If the text isn't from someone on my contact list, it is blocked and simply doesn't get through to me. I get unlimited text (SMS and MMS) with my service. I just don't like being annoyed.

 

[rabidhunter]

But right now, this service is off the hook due to FCC being shut down and everything.