It is important to protect your privacy, time, and peace of mind. We want you to be in control of all communications regarding credit, debt and personal finances.
We’ve covered a number of topics to help you control these communications:
- How to opt-out of credit card offers from lenders that pre-screen credit reports
- How to stop receiving junk mail from creditors, insurance companies, and other types of marketing
- How to reduce unwanted calls by using the Do Not Call Registry.
We’ll add today to this list by talking about how to opt out of SMS text messages
Understand the law on opting out of marketing messages
You are protected by law from receiving unwanted SMS text messages. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) prohibits companies from contacting you using automated equipment without your consent. This law is aimed at robocalls and autodialers, but also applies to SMS text messages.
The TCPAcarries fines ranging from $500 to $1500 for each violation. Companies that send out thousands of text messages could rack up huge penalties if the don’t take care not to text people without their consent.
The TCPA and the California Consumer Privacy Act, as well as guidelines provided by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, (CTIA), ensure that anyone sending out marketing texts is aware of the need to get consent and have policies in place for removing them from text marketing lists.
It means that any text message sent to you as part of an advertising or business campaign will include language such as “reply STOP if you want to stop receiving text messages”, or “would like to continue receiving text messages?” Wouldr YES or No”.
To stop receiving automated texts, the most common method is to reply STOP.
Other phrases are also allowed by some businesses, such as QUIT or OPT-OUT. If you are not told to use it, your best option is to text STOP.
Remember that you can complain to the FCC for unwanted text messages in the same manner as you would complain about unwanted phone calls.
Be aware that not all companies are subject to the same laws. These laws don’t apply to nonprofit organizations or political campaigns, but they must still honor any requests from their customers who want to opt-out of receiving text messages.
Reporting Spaopt outber that CTIA guidelines are not legal restrictions. However, the consequences for violating them can be serious. The TCPA may not fine an exempt charity that sends you unsolicited text messages and does not honor your request to stop. However, by violating CTIA Guidelines, the charity may lose its cellular account.
CTIA is a group of cellular providers that you may use to text, such as AT&T, Verizon etc.
To report unwanted spam text messages to yo you’re a carrier, forward the message content to 7726.
The word SPAM will appear on the number pad of your phone. Your carrier may ask you to confirm that you received the unwanted text message at the number provided.
This is important, especially for spam that was sent without your consent. It is similar to email spam where the sender of the message is unknown I, and it is likely impossible to enforce TCPA (possibly due to the fact that the messages were sent from outside the US). You can only do one thing to stop these spammers: notify your mobile carrier so that they can disable their ability to send texts.
Blocking Senremove Your Smartphone
Follow these steps if you have an iPhone to block a text message.
- Tap on the unwanted message within the app.
- The contact number will appear at the top.
- Click on the “i” to get more information about the number.
- The “Info” icon should be the last one on the right, under the phone number.
- At the bottom of the screen, tap the red text “Block This Caller.”
- You can “Report Junk”, if you don’t have the sender’s contact informaton in your Contacts link, if it’s an iMessage message. Apple provides instructions in the article.
You can block text messages on Android devices by following these steps
- Open the messages app
- Open the unwanted Conversation
- Click on the “More icon” (three vertical dots).
- Click “Details”.
- Tap “Block and Report Spam”.
The process is the same on Samsung phones:
- Click the Conversation to listen.
- Click the “More Icon”
- Tap “Block number”
Blocking unidentified senders on Android
You can block unknown senders on your Android phone to prevent getting messages. You can limit your messaging to the numbers that you have added to contacts. This may prevent you from receiving messages if the sender is not added to your contact list.
- Open the Messages App
- Tap the menu to see all of our products
- Tap Settings
- Scroll down to the “Spam settings” section and find “block unknown senders”.
Blocking unknown Senders on iOS/ iPhone
You ca.” block unknown senders on an iPhone:
- Open the Settings App
- Select Messages
- Switch the switch to the right of “Filter Unknown Senders” so it turns green.
Then, messages sent by unknown senders will not trigger an alert. They will be filtered. If you click ” Filters” at the top-left corner of the screen, you can still view them in the message app.
Blocking messages on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and other communication apps
There are other messaging apps, such as Whatsapp Messenger, Facebook Messenger, and TelegrWhatsApp, that do not use SMS texting. Each app will have its own method for blocking unwanted texts. Check the website of the service you are using to see how to stop unwanted messages.
Beware of unauthorized text messages
Texmessagesreceive that you did not authorize are. Highly suspicious. It’s especially important if the sender doesn’t provide a way to opt-out or stop receiving messages in the future.
It would be best if you assumed that any message like this is a scam. Any interaction with the sender could make you vulnerable. You should report, block, and delete any message threads.
Contact someone if you need assistance with your debts, housing, or credit. Do not wait for someone else to contact you, and do not respond to unsolicited text messages. You can get a nonprofit like credit.org to ensure you are dealing with a trustworthy organization.
