I think Verizon Wireless has supported reporting SMS spam to them via the 7726 (SPAM) SMS number for a while now. I'm not really sure when that started, but very recently, Verizon's Alex Lawson posted a blog post talking about 7726. Check it out here. TL;DR? Forward unwanted SMS messages to 7726. What happens next? Maybe not enough, but reporting is a good first step. Verizon does say they block a lot of SMS spam, so perhaps end user reports feed into those mechanisms.
AT&T and T-Mobile tell you to forward spam texts to 7726, too. Spam reports are valuable in the email world. Let's hope that's true of SMS land, as well.
I had a chance to use it just now and what you do is first you forward the SMS message itself, and then 7726 replied with, "Please reply with the sender's number. Messages shared with 7726 are shared with security providers to help prevent spam." I did that and got a thank you from the friendly SMS robot. The whole process seems a bit clunky. (I'm looking at you, iOS, why don't you just have a "report spam to the provider" button?) But again, it's a start.
I think Verizon Wireless has supported reporting SMS spam to them via the 7726 (SPAM) SMS number for a while now. I'm not really sure when that started, but very recently, Verizon's Alex Lawson posted a blog post talking about 7726. Check it out here. TL;DR? Forward unwanted SMS messages to 7726. What happens next? Maybe not enough, but reporting is a good first step. Verizon does say they block a lot of SMS spam, so perhaps end user reports feed into those mechanisms.
AT&T and T-Mobile tell you to forward spam texts to 7726, too. Spam reports are valuable in the email world. Let's hope that's true of SMS land, as well.
I had a chance to use it just now and what you do is first you forward the SMS message itself, and then 7726 replied with, "Please reply with the sender's number. Messages shared with 7726 are shared with security providers to help prevent spam." I did that and got a thank you from the friendly SMS robot. The whole process seems a bit clunky. (I'm looking at you, iOS, why don't you just have a "report spam to the provider" button?) But again, it's a start.
Related: Don't forget that Call Filter app that I mentioned a few weeks ago.
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