Serious Discussion Reporting Spam Text Messages (7726 & Others)

[KnownStormChaser]

I posted this on Reddit a couple of years ago, and I thought I'd post it here as well to help spread the word. There is a number you can forward spam text messages if they contain phishing or malicious links. If you live in either Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand or Sweden, you can forward these texts to 7726. Which in most cases will send it to your cell provider so their I.T. team can help block these links.

Some other countries have something similar with different numbers you can forward them to. I will list them below:

Australia (0429 999 888)
Poland (8080)
France (33700)
Latvia (1677)
India (1909)

If anyone knows of any others I may have missed, I will update the post as needed. I hope this helps at least someone out there. Also, here are some links for more info from each respective country:

Reporting spam text messages to 7726 - Get Cyber Safe

Spam text messages are common and can be tough to manage. Find out how you can help block spam and unwanted messages from your phone.

www.getcybersafe.gc.ca

How to Recognize and Report Spam Text Messages

Find out what you can do about unwanted text messages and how to report them.

consumer.ftc.gov

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/scam-calls-and-messages/7726-reporting-scam-texts-and-calls

Spam-Report-TXT-Spam - dia.govt.nz

www.dia.govt.nz

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https://www.acma.gov.au/dealing-with-spam

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www.service-public.fr

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Complain or report against UCC | Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

trai.gov.in

 

[Marko :)]

I use Google Messages for this. It automatically sends spam/scam SMS messages to junk. Though, I get them rarely; maybe one or two per year.

Google Phone is my go-to app for phone as it also block spam/scam calls. I once answered spam call in a hurry and they started to call me every week at least three times. In settings of Google Phone app, I enabled both of the settings from screenshot. After a month or so, they just gave up and I haven't got a spam/scam call for more than two years now.

Apparently, if you answer just once, you're confirming that your phone number is in use and they'll start calling you more and more. After activation of these settings, Google Phone app rejects (denies) these malicious calls automatically and which tells scammers that your number is not in use and they move on.

 

[Parkinsond]

After activation of these settings, Google Phone app rejects (denies) these malicious calls automatically and which tells scammers that your number is not in use and they move on

Do such settings need internet connection to work?

 

[Marko :)]

Do such settings need internet connection to work?

Yes. App needs to get information on new numbers sending malicious SMS and calls somehow. The number which sent you an SMS or called you is checked against Google's data base in real-time. If it finds a match, it's automatically associated with spam and blocked. In case you get a spam SMS or call and it isn't blocked, there's an option to report the number to Google. When more people report it, phone number gets in their data base and all future calls made from the number will be blocked.