So I wouldn’t recommend paying $4 a month for this app, which is available only for iPhones, unless spam texts have become truly unbearable for you. It successfully caught five spam messages in five days, but it also erroneously filtered two legitimate messages, including a response from Verizon thanking me for reporting spam and a message from an AT&T spokesman. TextKiller was thorough - perhaps too thorough. If the text is detected as spam, it gets filtered into a folder labeled “Junk.” The app, which blocks spam texts for $4 a month, scans messages coming from phone numbers that are not in your address book. If text spam is becoming overwhelming, spam-filtering apps like Teltech’s TextKiller are meant to help. After forwarding, the carrier asks for the phone number that the message came from. To report a scammy text, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile offer the same number to forward the messages to: 7726. Even typing “STOP” will indicate to a scammer that your phone number is active. This practice, called URL masking, involves using a phony web link that directs you to a different web address that asks for your personal information.įirst and foremost, never click on a link or file in a suspicious message.ĭefinitely don’t reply to such a message, either. Instead of a traditional web link composed of “they are web links that contain sentences or phrases, like. The links in a scam text often look strange. The message contains misspelled words that were intended to circumvent the wireless carriers’ spam filters. Authentic commercial entities generally send messages from four-, five- or six-digit numbers. Scam texts typically come from phone numbers that are 10 digits or longer. Another message touted the benefits of a product that cured brain fog.īe on the lookout for these telltale signs of a fraudulent text: Another advertised an anti-aging skin cream. In the last week, I have received messages that said a Samsung TV - a big-ticket item meant to get my attention - could not be delivered. What spam text looks likeīy far the most common text scam is the message impersonating a company that is offering a shipping update on a package, such as UPS, FedEx or Amazon, according to Teltech. Here’s what to look out for with text scams - and what you can do. “Spam texts are just increasing at a much more drastic rate than spam calls.” “Scammers are always looking for the next big thing,” said Giulia Porter, a vice president at Teltech. In addition, industrywide and government efforts to crack down on robocalls may be pushing scammers to move on to text messages. Their rise has been fueled partly by the fact that messages are so effortless to send, Teltech said. Text scams vary widely but often involve getting you to cough up your personal data with messages disguised as tracking updates for phony package deliveries, or information about health products and online banking. But text spam affects all wireless subscribers, and carriers now offer resources online for how people can protect themselves and report spam. Representatives for AT&T and T-Mobile said they had not seen the same problem. “We have blocked the source of the recent text messaging scheme in which bad actors were sending fraudulent text messages to Verizon customers which appeared to come from the recipient’s own number,” said Adria Tomaszewski, a Verizon spokeswoman. On Monday, it said it had fixed the problem. Verizon confirmed that it was investigating the text issue. That outpaced robocalls, which rose 20 percent in the same period, according to an analysis by Teltech, which makes anti-spam tools for phones. In March, 11.6 billion scam messages were sent on American wireless networks, up 30 percent from February. Spam texts from all sorts of phone numbers - and not just your own - are on the rise. Only recently has mobile phone fraud shifted more toward texting, experts said. Consumers have struggled with cellphone spam for years, primarily in the form of robocalls with scammers incessantly ringing to leave fraudulent messages about late payments for student loans, audits by the Internal Revenue Service and expired car warranties.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |