Fight Back Against Text Spamming

I hate spams, and I hate unsolicited phone calls, even when these are illegal in many countries.

The problem with text-spamming to mobile phones is that till now, there's not a whole lot one can do to fight back. If your phone service has a way to block numbers, that's wonderful. But many don't. And I'm not the one who will just sit there and do nothing.

So I'm pleased when I read this article that there's now a way for you to at least do something to combat this problem. The wireless carriers are now banding together to compile problem number that, hopefully, will make them go after these spammers.

So here's what you should do:

1. When you receive a text spam from an actual phone number (rather than a shortcode), forward it to "7726" (which spells SPAM).
2. When your carrier responds, reply with the 10-digit phone number of the spammer.
3. You will then get a text message acknowledging your complaint.

Now, what they do with that, who knows. But at least you have done all you can. One would hope that if enough people complain about that same spam and from the same phone number, the carriers will take action.

If you get a text spam from a shortcode, the article says that you should reply to it with a "STOP" message. Supposedly, the use of shortcodes is tightly regulated and people don't want to lose that. Still, what if you still get spam from that shortcode number? The article doesn't tell you what to do then, or who to complain to.

In any case, I've just reported my first text spam, and interestingly enough, it was the same type of text spam that was reported in the article, i.e. receiving a gift card from Walmart (yeah, right!). The process went exact as described above, and in the article, except T-Mobile (unlike Verizon as in the article) doesn't tell you how to block certain phone numbers.

Zz.