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Cell Phone Spam Is Costly And Annoying

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By ROB PEGORARO, The Washington Post

Published: December 17, 2007

Updated: 12/16/2007 05:11 pm

All of my phone numbers are on the Do Not Call list, but my cell phone keeps getting junk text messages - which I have to pay for! Is there any way to prevent this?

Everyday junk e-mail is annoying enough, but SMS (Short Message Service) spam is far worse. At best, the messages are covered by your text-messaging plan's quota; at worst, each one costs you 10 or 15 cents.

Either way, they waste your time as you read and delete each of these irrelevancies.

But you are not without recourse. Ask your wireless carrier to waive the charges. You shouldn't have to pay for this junk.

Second, you can limit the kind of messages that reach your phone by logging in to your carrier's Web site and changing your account's text-messaging settings. You can usually block individual subjects or senders - although, because SMS spam, like e-mail spam, varies constantly, that's unlikely to provide long-term relief.

You can also try to limit how text messages reach you. Most carriers (but not Sprint) let you reject messages sent from e-mail accounts or Web sites, the source of most SMS spam, while continuing to accept text messages from other phones.

If some people do regularly e-mail your phone, your best option may be to set up a new alias for it that doesn't feature your phone's number, then only accept messages sent to that address. (For instance, people would have to send a message to "yourname@carrier" instead of the more easily guessed address "8135551212@carrier.")

But among the major carriers, only Verizon Wireless offers this.

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