Protecting You From Spam Text Messages.

How the wireless industry protects you from unwanted messages.

The facts about text messaging and spam.

Learn about what differentiates spam from safe, legitimate communications.

How the wireless industry fights spam texts.

The tactics wireless providers implement to keep spam from reaching you.

Partnering with law enforcement.

How the industry works with government to stop bad actors.

What you should expect from message senders.

Companies, campaigns, and organizations are expected to adopt industry principles and best practices.

How to protect yourself from unwanted texts.

Steps you can take to prevent spammers from reaching you.

The facts about text messaging and spam.

Messaging is a really popular way to communicate — which is why both good and bad actors try to reach you via text.

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Americans love texting

More than 2 trillion texts are exchanged annually. 98% of texts are opened because texts are a trusted, convenient form of communication.

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It’s not just consumers that like to text.

Businesses, nonprofits, political campaigns, and more use texting to reach you too. These organizations should get your consent before texting you. Often, these texts are useful, like those that contain information regarding flight delays, school closures, and order statuses.

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Spammers want to take advantage of texting’s trusted status.

Bad actors also try to take advantage of how much we all like text messaging. Spam texts can be annoying, and some are harmful like phishing or fraud attempts. Bad actors may also have acquired your phone number without consent or fail to provide a means to opt out.

How the wireless industry fights spam texts.

The wireless industry is working hard to to protect consumers from spam texts by deploying sophisticated tools and setting guidelines for organizations.

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Registering and vetting message senders.

Wireless providers work to confirm that the businesses, nonprofits, and political campaigns who use short codes (i.e., 15555), ten-digit phone numbers (i.e., 555-555-5555) or toll-free telephone numbers (i.e., 1-866-555-5555) to send text messages are who they say they are.

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Encouraging message senders to get your consent.

The wireless industry’s Messaging Principles & Best Practices ask that organizations gain consent from you before texting and offer a way for you to opt out of receiving messages you don’t want.

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The Best Practices provide that all non-consumer message senders should get consent before sending messages— no matter if you are a business, charity, political campaign, or other type of sender. Political campaigns can learn more here.

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Fighting text message scams.

The wireless industry created the Messaging Security Best Practices to give companies involved in text messaging the tools and security frameworks to protect you from spam messages.

LEARN MORE

Explore the Messaging Security Best Practices.

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Analyzing and blocking spam texts.

Providers use a variety of sophisticated tools, including spam filters, algorithms and blocking techniques, that help identify and respond to unwanted, illegal, or harmful messages. Every time you report spam through 7726 (SPAM), the industry is able to further calibrate spam filters and other measures for mitigating unwanted text messages.

DID YOU KNOW

Wireless providers use “account fingerprinting” techniques to identify accounts that are sending lots of messages but don’t regularly make calls or use data. Providers also use robust spam filtering software that can help detect certain evidence of spam, like a large volume of spam coming from a single phone number or texts encouraging customers to click on a link to a suspicious website.

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Partnering with law enforcement.

The wireless industry works closely with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, as well as the FTC and FCC to stop bad actors from sending text messages.

Industry collaborates to protect consumers.

The Secure Messaging Initiative (SMI) includes a central clearinghouse that messaging providers, law enforcement, and government agencies can use to share information about suspected spam messages in order to more rapidly and effectively target enforcement at the senders of unwanted or fraudulent messages.

Learn More

Read more about the Secure Messaging Initiative.

Partnering with industry and government to investigate.

The wireless industry partners closely with the FTC, FCC, and law enforcement officials at the federal, state, and local fraud bureaus to provide the information needed to quickly take action against spammers.

Meeting the challenge of tracing bad actors.

While industry, law enforcement, and other entities collaborate actively to protect consumers, cracking down on the bad actors behind spam texts is challenging. It takes time and teamwork to build a case that leads to enforcement—the scammer may be able to quickly shut down, change its name, or use other evasion tactics.

What you should expect from message senders.

If consent and opt-out requirements are met, 77% of Americans are comfortable getting text messages from companies, nonprofits, and other organizations.

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Message senders should request consent.

Businesses, nonprofits, political campaigns, and other organizations should request consent before sending you a text. Nearly 90% of Americans believe consent should be required before an organization sends a text. That’s why the Best Practices suggest that no organization should send a text without gaining your consent first.

Learn More

Messaging Principles & Best Practices: The consumer-first guide for non-consumer senders—including corporations, small businesses, nonprofits, political campaigns, and related partners and vendors—about how to engage with their customers or target audience. If you are a political campaign or nonprofit, please visit www.politicalmessaging.com to learn more about sending messages voters want to receive.

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Senders should provide a means to opt-out.

Four out of five Americans believe organizations should offer an easy way for consumers to stop or opt out of receiving text messages. You should have clear and easy ways to opt out of receiving messages, and senders should act quickly to honor those requests.

Learn More

Refer to Messaging Principles & Best Practices for more information on opting out.

How to protect yourself from unwanted texts.

Explore these actionable steps that keep spammers at bay and away from your text messages.

Forward your unwanted messages to 7726 (SPAM)

If you are getting spam text messages, you can forward them to the number 7726 or “SPAM” to report them to your wireless provider. Providers use this information to calibrate spam filters and other sophisticated tools to protect consumers. Learn more about forwarding a text message on an iPhone or Android device.

File a complaint

File a complaint with the FCC if you believe you have received an illegal call or text, or if you think you’re the victim of a spoofing scam. For further information and tips, check out the FCC’s dedicated page on unwanted texts and calls.

Block the number

Depending on your device, you may also be able to block the sender. Check with your cellphone manufacturer (Apple, Samsung) to learn more.

Reply STOP

Automated messages should enable you to opt out by replying STOP. Replying STOP is a great way to stop texts from unwanted senders. After you’ve replied STOP, send the original message to 7726 (SPAM) — this will enable carriers to further prevent similar messages from being delivered in the future.