- Spam texts inundate iPhone users daily
- Apple lets users filter unknown senders
- Scammers seek personal info via texts
Americans are inundated with spam text messages masquerading as pals, job openings, and government authorities.
Many iPhone owners have voiced displeasure with the unwelcome messages, with some claiming to have received over 400 this month alone.
While consumers can respond with ‘Stop’ to remove themselves from the list, Apple has a little-known trick that prevents unknown senders from messaging them directly.
Users can filter messages to another folder, which means they will not receive a notification when the text arrives.
‘Scammers create false text messages to deceive you into giving them your personal information, such as your password, account number, or Social Security number,’ the Federal Trade Commission warned.
‘If they obtain such information, they may access your email, bank, or other accounts. Alternatively, they could sell your information to other scammers.
Apple already has a framework to handle similar situations, which can be found in Settings.
Users navigate to Settings, Messages, and Message Filtering, where they can enable ‘Filter Unknown Senders.’
Once the option is enabled, the ‘Filters’ option will appear in iMessage at the top left. Here, all undesired text messages will be sent—and users will not be notified when they arrive.
Another alternative is to block the sender of the text message; however, a human or bot may spam you from another number.
While many spam communications attempt to deceive Americans into disclosing personal information or money, a deluge of political messages encourages them to vote and choose a side.
One X user wrote: ‘I fear I will look back on my life from my deathbed and regret the vast amount of time I wasted typing ‘stop’ to political text messages.’
According to Axios, the flood of messages is likely the result of the Supreme Court relaxing rules for obtaining authorization to send mass text messages in 2021.
According to data, the Republican National Convention sent over 225 million SMS in 2020 to encourage voters to vote.
‘Text messages are a vital tool, but of course, like many others, I am irritated by how many of them I receive and how frequently I have to send a STOP message,’ Melissa Michelson, dean of Menlo College, told Time Magazine.
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Republicans are once again ahead of Democrats in terms of campaign message distribution this year, having sent twice as many.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reported that unauthorized and faked robot calls, along with political messages, are among the most common customer complaints.
‘These include complaints from consumers whose numbers have been faked or whose calls have been incorrectly banned or labelled as a probable scam call by a robocall filtering app or service,’ the FCC stated.
Scammers send robocalls asking for your Social Security number, taxes, or Medicare.
‘They claim that if you don’t pay or refuse to give them your personal information, something awful will happen, or you will lose out on a government benefit. It is a hoax.
The agency has advised the public to refrain from replying to unknown senders and to contact their phone company for help blocking such calls.
