how do you deal with spam text messages?

[ghanwani]

There appear to be 2 types of spam text:
1/ those that came from a phone number
2/ those that come from an email address

For (1), I can just follow this:
(a) Report to Apple by clicking on "Report Junk" below the message. As mentioned in the link, it doesn't block messages from that number (and that's actually my preference).
(b) Report to carrier by forwarding to 7726 (SPAM). This usually requires me to manually enter the phone number that it came from.
(c) There may also be a carrier specific way that can be use instead of (b), such as for AT&T.

How do I report spam message of type (2)? See attached (screenshot was taken in landscape mode on phone to be able to see the entire email address that it came from). There is no option to report as junk to Apple and this seems to be an imessage issue, rather than something I need to report to the carrier.

It would be nice if Apple could provide one simple, consistent way of reporting spam messages, and if they could also take care of forwarding it to the carrier on our behalf in cases where that is needed.

Thanks.

 

[C DM]

It would be nice if Apple offered the ability to apply the existing Filter Unknown Senders option to more than iMessages, as it only makes it partially useful at best.

 

[C DM]

There appear to be 2 types of spam text:
1/ those that came from a phone number
2/ those that come from an email address

For (1), I can just follow this:
(a) Report to Apple by clicking on "Report Junk" below the message.
(b) Report to carrier by forwarding to 7726 (SPAM). This usually requires me to manually enter the phone number that it came from.
(c) There may also be a carrier specific way that can be use instead of (b), such as for AT&T.

How do I report spam message of type (2)? See attached (screenshot was taken in landscape mode on phone to be able to see the entire email address that it came from). There is no option to report as junk to Apple and this seems to be an imessage issue, rather than something I need to report to the carrier.

It would be nice if Apple could provide one simple, consistent way of reporting spam messages and took care of forwarding it to the carrier on our behalf.

Thanks.

Looking at the included screenshot it seems to mention "Text Message" so this would be something outside of iMessage.

Some carriers offer options to block messages being sent from email addresses and/or the web. There are also options to disable MMS messaging that can help at times. However all of those can affect legitimate messages as well, so there's a potential downside.

 

[teeshot44]

If from phone number, I just go to info and block it. Worked so far.

 

[ghanwani]

Looking at the included screenshot it seems to mention "Text Message" so this would be something outside of iMessage.

OK.

Some carriers offer options to block messages being sent from email addresses and/or the web. There are also options to disable MMS messaging that can help at times. However all of those can affect legitimate messages as well, so there's a potential downside.

If from phone number, I just go to info and block it. Worked so far.

I am not looking to block them yet, as much as to report them. My hope is that there is infrastructure at the carrier/iMessage level to block these kinds of message, or at least for them to take action against the spammers where possible. If they are not reported, then we are more likely to see an increasing number of them.

 

[C DM]

If from phone number, I just go to info and block it. Worked so far.

Assuming they keep on coming from the same place, which often enough isn't the case unfortunately.

 

[teeshot44]

Assuming they keep on coming from the same place, which often enough isn't the case unfortunately.

True, as do phone calls that are blocked. Doubt that they will ever disappear. Spammers will always find a way to get to us.

 

[Jaggrey]

It would be nice if Apple offered the ability to apply the existing Filter Unknown Senders option to more than iMessages, as it only makes it partially useful at best.

This is present in iOS 14.

 

[C DM]

This is present in iOS 14.

The filtering seems to be there and now working for regular text messages and not just iMessages, which is nice. However, it seems that notifications are still coming through for messages from unknown senders, which kind of defeats part of the usefulness of such filtering as you are still interrupted and bothered by these messages. I was under the impression that the notifications would be suppressed when this filtering is enabled, but seems like that's might not be the case (unless I overlooked something or perhaps there's a bug somewhere).

Is it working correctly for anyone?

 

[bigchrisfgb]

Forward them to 7726.
You can do this in both the U.K. and USA, and possibly other countries as well.

 

[ghanwani]

Today I got a spam/phishing text message from a weird number -- 1410200500. What kind of a number is this?

 

[ignatius345]

Today I got a spam/phishing text message from a weird number -- 1410200500. What kind of a number is this?

They can pretty much spoof whatever they want. Makes "caller ID" more or less useless.

 

[ghanwani]

All this massive AI investment for mass surveillance and they cannot get rid of even small annoyances like this for consumers.

 

[Global_traveler]

Whatever you do, do NOT open it. Swipe and delete it. While not likely, it’s not impossible that malware could be installed when opened.

 

[ghanwani]

Whatever you do, do NOT open it. Swipe and delete it. While not likely, it’s not impossible that malware could be installed when opened.

I have to open it to copy it so I can report it to AT&T (sending it to 7726).

Of course, if Apple provided an easier way to report such things instead of worrying about scanning my images...

 

[Global_traveler]

Do so at your own peril. My experience with ATT is that they can do nothing, as the senders phone number etc is “spoofed” as Ignacius345 said. But perhaps you have no valuable files on your phone to worry about?

 

[ghanwani]

Do so at your own peril. ... But perhaps you have no valuable files on your phone to worry about?

I spent some time trying to see if opening a text message makes one more vulnerable to a hack, but have come up empty. Do you have a link that discusses this?

What I did come up with is an article from 2019 that talks about interactionless hacks, but that's different because it doesn't even require opening the message.

Hackers Can Break Into an iPhone Just by Sending a Text

You don't even have to click anything.

www.wired.com

 

[Boyd01]

Personally, I just delete them. In my experience, spammers don't use the same number more than once, but I don't really know for sure. Anyway, I get very few spam messages.

 

[Global_traveler]

I spent some time trying to see if opening a text message makes one more vulnerable to a hack, but have come up empty. Do you have a link that discusses this?

What I did come up with is an article from 2019 that talks about interactionless hacks, but that's different because it doesn't even require opening the message.

Hackers Can Break Into an iPhone Just by Sending a Text

You don't even have to click anything.

www.wired.com

Here’s one from last year. You can look these up yourself. Take the risk if you prefe, but own the consequence.

The text that will crash your iPhone

A Sindhi character and the Italian flag emoji can break phones, iPads, Macs and Apple Watches

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Isamilis]

I use VeroSMS. Worked great so far. It used white/black list words.

 

[bukalemun]

I have just finished work on a free app called Junkman which uses machine learning to differentiate between normal, transaction and junk sms messages. It works on device locally, does not collect any information, does not need to send any information to a server to classify a message and can detect English and Turkish language messages.

It is currently in open beta. If you get English or Turkish sms junk and would like to help improve its filter, you are welcome to test it. The app also has reporting extension capability, so you can report any normal, junk or transaction message directly from the Messages app as soon as you enable the extension. Especially the English filter may still need messages from different countries like United States, India or South Africa.

Also you can use the app without its smart filter. It includes simple to use sender lists to add any sender to normal, transaction, promotion or junk lists in Messages app.

You can join the open beta from

TestFlight - Apple

Using TestFlight is a great way to help developers test beta versions of their apps.

testflight.apple.com

Edit: Junkman is now live on the App Store. You can download it from https://junkman.app

 

[circatee]

I typically block, and delete. Albeit, it is rather frustrating that spammers and such have started to move towards text message targets more, versus email.

 

[bukalemun]

I typically block, and delete. Albeit, it is rather frustrating that spammers and such have started to move towards text message targets more, versus email.

That’s why unless Apple starts doing this in every country and language, apps like Junkman will be needed. I was frustrated with the situation in our country so I had to write my own.

It is impossible to block them all especially if they don’t come from a number and come instead from an alphabetical sender.

 

[firedept]

Block and delete. Do the same on text messages.

 

[TheIntruder]

Blocking senders is an endless game of mole whacking, and providers can only do so much, even when they try.

Apple could simply provide an option to silence message notifications from unknown senders like it does with phone calls. Filtering unknown senders but allowing them to still trigger notifications is a half-baked/half-measure, and it's frustrating to check who texted and only to discover that it's some scammer.

The unknown sender list view could then act like a spam mailbox folder, and be checked only when needed, or an expected message doesn't appear. Or the old school "letting the machine pick up" and not be bothered. Sadly, a defensive posture must be used.

I don't count the existing filter list as even a rudimentary tool, which makes the current situation a distinctly poor user experience, especially if one also has linked other devices to Messages, so the effect is multiplied.

Make your displeasure known to Apple Feedback, and leave a honest review on the App Store, now that Apple's first-party apps can be rated by users, at least those on iOS 15.