Fighting the Text Spammers

A few weeks ago I started receiving unwanted text messages on my iPhone and iPad.  They were advertising sites and subjects of a sexual nature.  I texted back the universal message that all ethical testers use, “Stop.”  That generally puts an end to the unwanted messages.  However, these spammer scum were anything but ethical and the messages kept coming.  I asked to be taken off their mailing list, but no dice.

I did an online search for a solution, and was advised to block the phone numbers sending the texts.  I did.  The messages stopped for a day and then started up again, with new phone numbers from the sender.  I blocked the new numbers but each day there were more.  I patiently blocked the new ones, thinking if I can’t stop the messages, at least I can make them work harder to send more.  I was at. war with the spammer scum and almost enjoyed the fight.  I was determined to outwit the spammers.

Finally I searched the iPhone apps and found several that claimed they would stop unwanted spam texts.  I chose one called SMS Spam Filter.  It has both a block list and an allow list.  For each phone number I added the area code and the first 2 digits of the phone number.  If the number began 1(201) 508, I added only 1(201) 50.  This prevented the spammers from using a slightly different number like 1(201) 509.  If they did, it wouldn’t matter since only the 1(201) 50 would be enough to block the spam.  I also noticed all the texts were from either hotmail or cricketwireless accounts, so I added hotmail and cricketwireless to the block list.  I also added certain terms in the messages like “sex,” “slut” etc to the block list.

I had to set this up separately on both my iPad and my iPhone, because texts would get through if I did not.

Next, I activated the filters by going to settings, messages, and message filtering Unknown and spam; then selecting SMS Spam Filter to activate.

It seems to be working as the spam texts have finally stopped.  Take that, spammer scum!