All You Should Know About Reporting Spam Texts

How to Identify Spam Texts?

To know when reporting spam texts is appropriate, it’s necessary for you to know what to look for. Some can be incredibly convincing, particularly as more people wake up to the issue of spam texts.

Here are a few typical characteristics of spam texts so you know what to look for.

1. Package Delivery

Missed delivery texts are common (and legitimate). Scammers know this, and so they’ve latched on to it as a way to get people’s details.

A company like Amazon or FedEx will never ask for personal information or money in a text message.

Also, look at the URL (weblink) in the text message. Scammers use ones close to actual web addresses, but with minor details. They might choose something like amzn.com or ama.zon.com.

2. Refunds

Another common scam is refund texts. For example, a scammer might pose as the IRS or Amazon saying, “You’ve overpaid, reply with your bank details” or “click the link to receive your refund”.

Again, companies – and government departments – will never do this legitimately. The IRS, for example, will send you a postal letter.

3. Verifying Bank Accounts

You can probably get the picture by now, but asking you to verify your bank account is one of the oldest phishing scams out there.

It’ll usually say, “Your account is locked. Log in using the link to secure it.”

A bank won’t contact you via text to tell you this – it’ll ring you. Look out for suspicious URLs, and, if in doubt, contact your bank directly.

Some important takeaways for identifying scam texts are:

• Companies never ask for your bank details. If you’ve shopped with them, they already have them.
• Check the URL. It might have a random period in there or be a bit link (bit.ly). Companies don’t use these very often.

What to do if You Receive a Spam Text?

Other than reporting spam texts, what should you do when you receive one? The following steps are good practices to stop spam text messages from causing any damage.

1. Don’t click on the link in the message. Doing so could install malware on your device.
2. Don’t reply to the message directly. This shows your number is real, and a scammer can sell it to other scammers.
3. Review your phone bill every month. If you notice any unusual charges, report them to your service provider.
4. Never give out personal information. Legitimate companies won’t ask for it via text, and if you have a service from them, they’ll already have the relevant information anyway.
5. Block and report any spam texts (more on this below).

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How to Report Spam Text on iPhone and Android?

Reporting spam texts is vital for ensuring they get taken down as quickly as possible. You can report them to your service provider using a dedicated number. Alternatively, you can do it directly on your device.

How to Report Spam Text on iPhone

To report spam text on iPhone, you must first set up an unknown senders filter. This is fairly easy to do:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Click on the Messages option.
3. Look for Message Filtering and toggle Filter Unknown messages to on.

Doing this means that any message not from someone in your contact list gets flagged as junk, allowing you to report it. To report spam text on iPhone directly to Apple, you must:

1. Wait for a text from an unknown sender.
2. Click to open the message (but not the link in the text).
3. Beneath the message will be a blue symbol that says Report Junk. Click it.
4. Finally, click Delete and Report Junk. This sends the information directly to Apple.

If one slips through the filter, you can’t report it as spam text on an iPhone. Instead, you manually block the sender in the normal way.

How to Report Spam Text on Android

The process of reporting spam texts on Android is much simpler, as you don’t need to set up a filter first. So, to report spam texts on Android, do the following:

1. Open up the Messages app.
2. Click on the conversation you want to report.
3. In the top right corner is the 3-dot menu. Click it.
4. Click Details then Block & Report Spam.
5. Finally, click Report Spam and OK.

You have more freedom for reporting spam on Android because you can essentially report anything you want. If there isn’t an option to report as spam, do so directly through your carrier.