Is there any way to stop spam texts?

August 17, 2014 3:04 PM

I've recently gotten three spam texts, one per day, via iMessage. Is there any way to block them?

I really don't want to start getting spam via text. That would pretty much destroy my phone, turning it into even more of a torture device than it already is.

The thing is I don't even know what number these messages are coming from. As you can see in the screenshot linked below, the only info provided about the sender is "[e-mail]".

Screenshot.

Is this person somehow sending texts from an email account? That doesn't seem to make sense, but maybe iMessage enables it?

Alternately, is there any way I can possibly turn off iMessage (which I've never seen the point of) and configure my phone to only use standard SMS texts? (I guess switching to a non-iPhone device would accomplish that, but that would be time-consuming and expensive.)

posted by trevor_case to Technology (7 answers total)

Best answer: There are instructions for blocking iMessage spam on Apple's website; note that it's a pain in the butt and not intuitive at all, as you have to do it by sending a screenshot via email.

If you want to turn off iMessage, just go into Settings > Messages and flick the switch to turn off iMessage. The point of iMessage is that it works with non-phone devices (like iPads and desktop Macs) and can use wifi to send/receive rather than just your phone's data connection.
posted by bcwinters at 3:11 PM on August 17, 2014 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Tap ‘Contact’ (near the top), press the little ‘i’, scroll down to the bottom, tap ‘Block this Caller’.
posted by kyten at 3:34 PM on August 17, 2014 [3 favorites]

Is this person somehow sending texts from an email account? That doesn't seem to make sense, but maybe iMessage enables it?

Yes. iMessage lets you designate "where" you are sending messages from. It is sort of a self-identified caller ID. However it is limited to the phone number and addresses registered with iMessage ( iCloud)
posted by Gungho at 5:54 AM on August 18, 2014

You can also report the spam to Apple.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 6:37 AM on August 18, 2014

If you are in the US, you also can probably report the text message to your cellular carrier by forwarding it to 7726. If you can't remember that number, it spells out "SPAM" on a phone keypad.

I know for a fact this is true of AT&T and Verizon. Not sure about T-Mobile or Sprint.

AT&T will text you back with something like "what number did this message come from" and then you have to text back with the number.
posted by tckma at 7:17 AM on August 18, 2014

Whoops, I just saw that this is via iMessage, not text message. I'm not sure forwarding it to the carrier will have any effect in that case.
posted by tckma at 7:18 AM on August 18, 2014

7726 works great for text messages/iMessages from phone numbers. Unless something's changed recently, it won't work for texts/iMessages from email addresses.
posted by hanov3r at 7:46 AM on August 18, 2014