How do I stop spam text messages?

Our mobile expert says...

Thanks for your question Matt, but I’m afraid to tell you that it’s not a surprise that you are receiving unwanted text messages that you didn’t sign up for, trying to sell you something you don’t want.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the public body that deals with data protection, reported last month that complaints about spam text messages have shot up this year.

On top of this, and further explaining the type of text you received Matt, survey results published in June by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) found that 43% of mobile users had received unsolicited spam texts promoting accident claims or mis-selling financial products.

What is a spam text message?

As you’re probably well aware, spam emails, also known as junk emails, are unsolicited emails sent in bulk, which are usually trying to promote some manner of product or service - anything from miracle weight loss drugs to penis enlargements.

There is also the more sinister side of spam email, such as those attempting advance fee fraud, which usually claim to be from the second cousin of a Nigerian prince asking for you to send him money to help him recover the prince’s vast riches, which he will of course share with you.

There are also phishing emails, which will attempt to con you into handing over sensitive information such as your bank account number and pin by pretending to be from your bank or a similar organisation. Even the chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, isn’t immune. A flurry of emails, purporting to be from the treasurer himself, recently hit inboxes promising payment of outstanding funds of over £900,000 to the recipient’s account - you simply had to provide your full contact details to get the cash...and a copy of your passport; what could be safer?

Spam text messages, while generally far less sophisticated that email spam, is basically the mobile equivalent of it.

Why are spam text messages a problem?

Let’s defer to Mark Brill, chair of the mobile marketing council at the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), who spoke to Mobilechoices.co.uk last month on this one.

“A third of it is the more malicious type,” said Brill, “which is clearly not opted in to and is trying to solicit services through essentially illegal means.”

So what does this mean to you? Well, at the very least, receiving constant unwanted marketing texts that you have not asked to receive can be ruddy irritating - you think you’ve got a text from that hot lass you got talking to last weekend, and it turns out to be yet another message from Ambulance Chasers R Us.

Spam text messages are far more intrusive than spam emails because your mobile phone is, as Brill described it, a “highly personal space” - junk emails can land in your email inbox all day long and you won’t know until you log in to your account, but spam text messages will have your phone beeping or vibrating in your pocket or bag all day long.

At worst, spam text messages could see you out of pocket. For example, a popular form of more malicious spam texts are those that will encourage you to call an expensive premium rate number in order to claim a prize.

One victim of spam text messages told BBC Radio 1’s Newsbeat last month that he began to receive up to 10 texts a day and was eventually forced to change his mobile phone number by taking out a new contract.

How do I stop spam text messages?

Thankfully, with complaints about spam text messages on the up, mobile networks as well as organisations such as the DMA and ICO have begun to look into how spam texts can be stopped, and more advice is available on what you can do to stop them as a result.

• First up, take preventative measures to ensure that you don’t receive spam text messages in the first place - only give your mobile phone number to people and companies you trust and don’t go posting it about all over the internet when interacting with other people via social networks and the like
• Also, when you are asked for your mobile phone number by a company or other organisation, you should ask if it is going to be used for marketing purposes or passed on to other parties. Companies should include details of this in their privacy policy
• If you do receive a spam text message, ascertain what type of text it is. If it is definitely from a major company or a smaller company you know well, then replying to the text with “STOP” should prevent you from receiving any further messages from that source
• If this doesn’t work, follow any instructions at the bottom of the message or on the company’s website regarding opting in or out of receiving text messages from it
• If the spam text message you have received is from a company or individual you have never heard of, or the sender doesn’t identify themselves, don’t reply by texting “STOP” or in any other way, even if the text contains details on how to opt-out. This is often done to help the sender find out if your number is in use and may result in the number of spam texts you are sent increasing - as Mark Brill said: “spam only works because some people respond”
• ”What we would recommend is that in the first instance you report it to your operator,” advises Brill. Mobile networks now provide their customers with a number that you can simply forward the spam text message to. The network will then investigate the message and can bar premium numbers that are part of any scam. The number to forward spam text messages to is 7726, unless you’re on Vodafone, then it’s 87726
• Finally, Mark Brill advises you to contact the ICO if you have any information that could identify the spammer: “The more information the operator has, the better they can prevent spam reaching consumers, and similarly with the ICO, the more information they have, the better they can prevent it reaching you”