Are you being bombarded with spam texts? Little known iPhone hack to stop spam

Americans are drowning in spam text messages masquerading as acquaintances, job opportunities and even government officials.

Many iPhone users have expressed their frustration with spam messages, with some claiming to have received more than 400 this month alone.

While users can reply with ‘Stop’ to remove themselves from the list, Apple has a little-known hack to prevent unknown senders from sending messages directly to them.

Users can filter messages to another folder, meaning they won’t receive a notification when the text arrives.

Americans are drowning in political campaign text messages as the November 2024 election approaches

“Scammers send fake text messages to trick you into giving them your personal information — things like your password, account number, or Social Security number,” the Federal Trade Commission shared.

“If they get that information, they can gain access to your email, bank or other accounts. Or they can sell your information to other scammers.

Apple already has a system in place for such cases — and it lives in Settings.

Users go to Settings, then select Messages and scroll down to Message Filtering where you can turn on “Filter Unknown Senders.”

Once the option is toggled on the ‘Filters’ option will appear in iMessage in the top left where all spam text messages will be sent – and users won’t get a notification when they enter.

Another option is to block the sender of the text message, but the individual or bot may be spamming you from another number.

Many iPhone users have expressed their frustration with spam messages, with some claiming to have received more than 400 this month alone

While much of the spam is trying to trick Americans into handing over their information or money, there is a flood of political messages urging them to vote and pick a side.

One user on X wrote: ‘I’m afraid I’ll look back on my life from my death bed and regret the sheer amount of time I spent writing ‘stop’ in political text messages.’

The flood of messages is likely due to the Supreme Court easing requirements in 2021 regarding obtaining permission to send mass messages, Axios reported.

Data showed that in 2020, the Republican National Convention sent over 225 million texts to drive voters to the polls.

“Text messages are an important tool, but of course, like many people, I’m frustrated by how many of them I get and how often I have to send a STOP message,” Melissa Michelson, a dean at Menlo College, told Time Magazine.

For this year, Republicans are once again ahead of Democrats when it comes to putting out campaign messages — the political group has sent twice as many so far.

While users can reply with ‘Stop’ to remove themselves from the list, Apple has a little-known hack to prevent unknown senders from sending messages directly to them.

Political messages aren’t the only thing Americans are concerned about as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reported that illegal and spoofed robocalls were the top consumer complaints.

“These include complaints from consumers whose numbers are being spoofed or whose calls are mistakenly blocked or flagged as a possible scam call by an app or service that blocks robocalls,” the FCC shared.

Scammers make robocalls that ask for your Social Security number, taxes or Medicare.

“They say that if you don’t pay or refuse to give them your personal information, something bad will happen or you’ll lose some government benefit. It is a fraud.”

The agency has urged the public not to respond to unknown senders and to contact their telephone company for help blocking these calls.