Spam
I foolishly opened a text message that was spam and now I’m getting lots of spam texts. How do I help protect myself and correct this issue.
iPhone 13, iOS 18
Question marked as
Simply opening a message will not alert the spammers that they have found a target, only if you click on a link in that message. Here are some options:
- Contact your carrier. Many times they have Spam filters that just need to be turned on to reduce Spam Texts.
- Block and Filter Messages. This is not 100% effective as spammers spoof their sending number to blocking won't always work. Filtering unknown senders always has the chance that you will miss a message that you need.
Block, filter, and report messages on iPhone – Apple Support (AU)
- Some third party blockers may be effective, but I would not be able to recommend a specific one and there is always the same chance that you will miss an important message.
Once your number has been made available to a spammer, it is nearly impossible to stop it. There are lists of phone numbers that are sold between groups simply for the purpose of scamming people. In addition, with the many data breaches that have occurred, it is likely your number as well as many others have been made available for years.