Mobile text spam is on the rise. Bloomberg news reports that more than 4.5 billion spam text messages were received this past year, and that is just in the United States. This growing trend ends up costing carriers money and frustrating their subscribers who have to pay for the messages and deal with determining which of their texts are potentially fraudulent.
Here are some steps that you can take to help stop mobile text spam:
- Forward spam texts to your cell phone provider to “7726”. Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc., T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel Corp. all support this service.
- Take advantage of the Do Not Call Registry at www.donotcall.gov. Register your phone number with them and this free service should make your phone number off limits to marketers within a month. If you are still receiving calls after that time, file a complaint against abuser on the same site.
- The most immediately effective thing to do is to adjust the settings on your cell phone provider’s website to block the specific numbers from which you are receiving spam.
- There are special apps specifically made to cope with this type of spam. “Mr. Number” for Android devices can block communication from unwanted numbers. There is also the McAfee Mobile Security app for Android, BlackBerry and Symbian comes with an SMS/text filter.
- And last but not least, call your cell phone provider’s customer service.
Some people may suggest replying to unwanted messages with the word “STOP”. Although some legitimate advertisers may respect this, most spammers could care less and will actually list your number as active and be MORE likely to text spam you in the future.
QTOOTH hopes these tips help. After all, the whole point of going wireless in this world is for less of a hassle, not more!
If you have any tips to share for stopping mobile text spam, please let us know in the comments below.
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