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Guide From Semalt: How To Deal With All That Spam That Comes To Your Phone

Ting Ting. You have just received a message. You put down the newspaper, dig into your trousers' pocket and pull out your mobile phone. Arrgh. You frown. You read something like this: 'Real Rolex Watch, 30% Off'. You check the sender's number hoping it's someone you know and you realize that you've never seen it before. You've been spammed.

Julia Vashneva, the Semalt Senior Customer Success Manager, says that today, smartphones have become a target for indiscriminate advertising campaigns. Sometimes the sender may be a legitimate business (one whom you willingly gave your number) but often times, they are from fake numbers advertising fake products and/or offers. You can think that this is an evolved telemarketing campaign. They are annoying, but you can block them for good.

The prerequisites

If you thought that spam was just an inconvenience, then you'd be surprised to know that it's illegal. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) states that it is illegal to send any unsolicited commercial message to a wireless device (including pagers and cellphones) unless the recipient opts for such messages. As it is, there is nothing wrong if an organization you interact with regularly asks for your permission to send you infomercials. The law, however, exempts noncommercial messages like surveys and political messages.

What should you do if you keep receiving messages from entities you've never heard of? Well, there is a good chance they are breaking the law. A possibility of the organization phishing for data should also not be ruled out. If you receive a text message requesting for your Pin or password, then that's malicious.

Block the sender's number

This is arguably the easiest and simplest method of getting rid of spam. In your preferred messaging app, block the sender. Interestingly, the sender won't realize that you've blocked them. On an Android device, click the three vertical dots on the top right-hand corner. Select "People & Options" then "Block". On an iPhone, rather than three dots then finish off by blocking the number.

Report to your service provider

You could be content with blocking the sender however the Federal Trade Commission wouldn't mind if you performed a civic duty: reporting wrongdoing. Regardless of the mobile service provider, you are at liberty to hold the spammer accountable. Find out the special number dedicated to your network for reporting such cases. If more people came together to fight off spammers, the world would see fewer annoying spam messages.

Protect yourself

Let's take a scenario in which you get the urge to find out who the person behind the spam message is. Will it be worth your time? Probably not. The chances are that you won't get any response. The idea here is simple. It is not a good idea to interact with the sender. Your best shot would be to block them and/ or report to the relevant authorities.

A word of caution. Do not click on any link provided in the text message. In addition to this, do not respond to any request for your email accounts login details, credit card details or any other personal information.