At first, spam largely came in the form of junk mail. Then it became more common as a phone call. After the rise of the internet, email became the new most popular method. Now it seems like spam texts might be the next big thing.
Spam texts set a record in January of 2021, with over six billion messages being sent. This record wouldn’t last very long as it would be shattered just two months later as the number of spam texts hit 7.4 billion messages in March of 2021.
As a result of so many messages being sent out, it’s no surprise that there have been apps and software designed specifically to block them. However, blocking them isn’t enough for some people, and they want to fight back against these annoying spammers. If you are fed up with spam texts, there are quite a few ways that you can join the fight against them.
What Are Spam Texts?
A spam text is most commonly defined as a text message you didn’t want and contains information you didn’t ask for. They essentially operate like junk mail for your phone.
Often they appear as mass advertisements that contain “special offers”, important messages from government agencies or your bank, and announcements related to prizes or contests you won.
These are just a few general examples as spam texts can get very specific, especially if the scammers have any personal information like your name, address, or job.
What Is The Point Of A Spam Message?
The ultimate goal of a spam message is to steal as much personal information from the recipient as possible. Your personal data is highly valuable to online predators and cybercriminals. Most people know how valuable their social security number and banking information can be, but even your phone number and email can be enough to sell online to hackers.
Make no mistake about it; spam texts are a highly lucrative and effective scam. In fact, it’s estimated that over 2.2 million Americans reported a total of $3.3 billion in losses due to digital fraud in 2020.
Over one in every four (27%) of those fraud victims reported that the initial contact was made via text message. Clearly, spam texts are more than just an annoying notification that you will have to delete; they are very dangerous too.
Is There Anything Being Done To Stop Spam Texts?
When you have enough people being scammed out of so much money, it’s just a matter of time before local representatives start to hear about it. Due to pressure being applied by their constituents, there have been multiple bipartisan attempts at creating legislation intended to eliminate spam calls and texts.
The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act was signed into law in 2003 and made it illegal for businesses to send unwanted text messages. While this helped to curb the number of spam texts in some ways, it hardly slowed down scammers since they typically aren’t registered businesses.
In January 2020, a new law was signed in order to go after scammers specifically. The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act increased the potential fines for spammers and emphasized phone companies do more to protect their consumers.
Although a noble attempt to help, clearly, the law has been ineffective based on the record number of spam texts being sent every month since its inception.
What Can You Do About It?
Since it doesn’t appear that spam texts are going away anytime soon, it will be up to you to protect yourself from them. There are quite a few options for doing so and even a couple where you can fight back against the spammers.
Forward The Messages
The best way to help the world be rid of spammers is to provide information to the proper authorities. At its peak, the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) was used in 219 countries and territories around the world and served more than five billion people.
This digital mobile network has largely been one of the most responsible for the exchange of Short Message Service (SMS) texts. The system has designated the number 7726 or “SPAM” as a method of reporting spam texts. All that you have to do is forward the spam message that you have received to 7726.
Regardless of your service plan, there will be no fee or charge incurred for sending this message. While this option is one of the easiest, it might not be around much longer as the GSM is expected to be phased out within a few years.
Report Spam Text Messages
Along with forwarding the text to 7726 to report junk, you should also be sure to file an official complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
These organizations are the ones that are best suited to enforce the laws being written to protect you from spam. The more information that they have, the easier it will be for them to do their jobs. All of the info you provide will be added to a registry for spam protection.
For the FTC, you would need to go to the Complaint Assistant page on their website. Under the menu section, you will need first to select the “Mobile Devices and Telephones” option and then “Unwanted Text Messages.”
You will then be taken through a questionnaire about the details involving the text that you received.
For The FCC, you will have to visit the Consumer Complaint Center page and be asked to fill out a short form regarding any information you have about the text and where it came from.
Use An App to Filter Unknown Senders
Even though creating reports and file complaints might bring about some satisfaction, you will almost certainly continue to get spam texts to your cell phone number anyway. Trying to fight back against these spam texts is a very noble practice. However, it can quickly be overwhelming having to continuously deal with spam texts or robocallers all day and every day.
Once you have reached your breaking point with telemarketing calls, using an app like Burner can help you to block 100% of these spam texts and calls. The way that the app works is fairly ingenious.
After you install it on your wireless device, Burner will allow you to select a new number that comes complete with an area code of your choosing. This number will then be used as the middleman during calls or texts in order to protect your real number. This is the number that shows on other people's caller id.
Since calls and texts will be routed through Burner first, you will be given the option to create a list of numbers that are permitted to be sent. This is called a whitelist approach and is virtually impossible for spammers to bypass.
Only texts and calls from approved numbers will be sent through to your real phone number; all others will be blocked or sent to your voicemail. From there, you will be able to listen to the voicemail that’s left and determine if the call is legitimate.
You would then add the number to your whitelist, and the number would be sent through the next time it called.
The Takeaway
Despite legislative actions to get rid of spam texts, they are currently worse than ever. Even new features from T-Mobile/Sprint, AT&T, Verizon or other carriers don't seem to help block spam texts. These are very dangerous scams that can turn your life upside down in no time flat.
There are a few options available in terms of reporting these highly annoying messages, but ultimately that won’t stop the constant bombardment of spam from scammers and telemarketers. The only way to guarantee 100% of spam texts and robocalls to be blocked is by using an app like Burner.
Try the free seven-day trial today in order to experience a life without spam.
SOURCES:
8 Spam Text Message Examples (& How to Identify Them Quickly) | textedly.com