How do I de-Trump my phone?
August 9, 2022 1:09 PM   Subscribe

So apparently a few years ago, someone named Lynn accidentally used my phone number to sign up for / donate money to the Trump campaign (this is just guesswork; I don't know anyone named Lynn and don't have a receipt). So for the last 2 years or so I've been getting spammed with text messages from various pro-Trump organizations asking for money. How do I make them stop?

This started sometime around 2020 and at first I got a kick out of it, because they're all semi-hysterical and often gave me little schadenfreudical bursts of joy ("Lynn, TRUMP IS LOSING IN GEORGIA and we NEED your support!" ... "Lynn, this is Donald Trump Junior. The Democrats want to put my father in jail and I need the help of patriots like you..."). Today I got four in a row because of the FBI raid (Step 1: Raid Trump's Home. Step 2: Seize your arms. This is an EMERGENCY, Lynn, Help us stop the socialist takeover!").

But they won't stop. And now I'm also getting money-grubbing asks to support other Republican candidates. Sometimes they give me the option to type "stop" to unsubscribe, and sometimes when I do I even get a message that says I've successfully done so. But I'm sure there's more than one list (I'm guessing it's a hydra), so even if I can actually stop one, that's not really a solution. I'm tired of seeing them and I really want them to go away.

Is there a way to stem these at the source? Obviously they're all coming from different numbers so I can't do a simple block. Help?
posted by Mchelly to Technology (7 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
You can ALWAYS type stop and they're supposed to remove you from the list, even if they do not tell you that is an option. That's the law. You are probably going to have to do this a lot, because there's not a master Do Not Text list and everyone gets their intel from public records, and you are likely getting texted from a lot of different groups. (My guess is that a Lynn who's a registered R had your number once upon a time.) Just text back STOP every time.

Source: I do a lot of text-banking. (Not for Trump.)

If you have an iPhone, you can also set it so that people who aren't in your contact list will be filtered so at least you don't have to hear the buzz and you can STOP them all at once when you feel like dealing.
posted by Countess Sandwich at 1:29 PM on August 9, 2022 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: If you have an iPhone, you can also set it so that people who aren't in your contact list will be filtered so at least you don't have to hear the buzz and you can STOP them all at once when you feel like dealing.

How do I do this? (Not sure about the number holdover theory - I've had this number for almost 25 years now) (yikes)
posted by Mchelly at 1:33 PM on August 9, 2022




On my iPhone, it is Settings > scroll way down to Messages > scroll again to "Filter Unknown Senders". I think that's it.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 2:38 PM on August 9, 2022


Best answer: I’ve used the app Bouncer to filter messages with specific words and send them straight to junk. It works very well.
posted by rabbitbookworm at 3:11 PM on August 9, 2022 [4 favorites]


If you have an iPhone, you can also set it so that people who aren't in your contact list will be filtered so at least you don't have to hear the buzz and you can STOP them all at once when you feel like dealing.

Just a cautionary note, this technique works well against spam, but it can also filter out texts you might want.

For example, you text a (new) repair person in order to get an estimate on a repair, unless you put them in your contacts, you risk missing that call/text back.

So you either need to put people's numbers on a contact list or commit to checking your filtered calls regularly (or look at third-party solutions like the one mentioned above).
posted by jeremias at 5:04 AM on August 10, 2022 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: Bouncer ftw! I just added “Lynn” and a few other Trump-related terms and I haven’t had a single text in a week (but my junk folder has a good 57 of them and counting)… thanks for the tip!
posted by Mchelly at 9:53 PM on August 17, 2022 [1 favorite]


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