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I get these all the time. Obvious spam. Soon we will need spam filters for text messages. Sad.
 
I eliminated this spamming by removing all my personal data from data brokers. It took me an entire Saturday, but I managed to remove my email/phone/address from over 40 online sources
Would be very interested to hear specifics on how you (or anyone else) did this. Did you pay for some service that automates it, or manually go through and fill out forms? Thanks!
 
“iPhone users hate this one trick…” is the only way this article could be more clickbait. /s

Snark aside… I eliminated this spamming by removing all my personal data from data brokers. It took me an entire Saturday, but I managed to remove my email/phone/address from over 40 online sources and I haven’t gotten a single SMS spam since. Not even during the US election season.

Care to share some details? Would be super cool if you started a thread on this topic.
 
Care to share some details? Would be super cool if you started a thread on this topic.

Here you go; there are PDFs in the right column:


This has been the standard for a while, and most sites that have guides have copied from this. The author no longer updates the guide or works in the field, but it's still useful.

I did the same a few years ago and even though I have a very unique name, nothing comes up when you google/bing/ddg my name, or my phone number.
 
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I've gotten that USPS text a few times. The first time was the same day I had actually sent a some what expensive watch to my brother via the post office. It took about three seconds to see the +63 in the phone number.

Why would the UNITED STATES Postal Service be using a number in the Philippines to alert customers?

The easiest way for everyone- even the most non-tech person out there- to avoid scams is to just calm down and THINK.
 
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As I’ve commented before, we need an ability to blacklist all communication from sources outside of our contact list. This would be an outright block, not a “silence”. It would have a control center toggle for the times we expect a call or text from an unknown number. It would put an effective end to the spam that ramps up during election cycles. Maybe add filters for words like social media, don’t accept new senders of messages including “Michelle”, “election” etc
 
If you see a phone number or email address as the sender it’s probably a scam, short codes cost money and highly doubtful hackers will use that. o_O
 
I've gotten that USPS text a few times. The first time was the same day I had actually sent a some what expensive watch to my brother via the post office. It took about three seconds to see the +63 in the phone number.

Why would the UNITED STATES Postal Service be using a number in the Philippines to alert customers?

The easiest way for everyone- even the most non-tech person out there- to avoid scams is to just calm down and THINK.

I get the same from time to time, but like everyone else is saying, there needs to better filtering. Why can't I default wide-block outside-of-the US/Canada country codes, or block messages from an email address? Wack-a-mole doesn't work!

Didn't realize that they all have the some country code.. Let me block +63 country codes, in their entirety!

Screenshot 2025-01-13 at 1.17.20 PM.jpeg
 
One problem is that the numbers are probably spoofed so it isn't used more than once.
What iOS should allow is to have an option to "Block all non-check marked calls" since the ones with the checkmark "have been verified by the carrier". Maybe an option: filter them or block them entirely.

This would (a) raise the threshold for spammers and spoofing calls. And they should do it for text messages. And (b) it would encourage the carriers and business to verify all numbers. For example, my cousin has a check mark, but the crazy people at 888-660-8506 do not.

Just blocking/filtering non-verified numbers would go a long way to starting on the path to resolving the nonsense.
 
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I've gotten that USPS text a few times. The first time was the same day I had actually sent a some what expensive watch to my brother via the post office. It took about three seconds to see the +63 in the phone number.

Why would the UNITED STATES Postal Service be using a number in the Philippines to alert customers?

The easiest way for everyone- even the most non-tech person out there- to avoid scams is to just calm down and THINK.
Why would anyone use USPS to send expensive items? I bet if you used pirateship, UPS was cheaper and faster. 😂
 
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Good grief no. It's the best way to communicate without the need for an Internet connection. It merely uses the spare D channel of a phone line. It truly is the best thing since sliced bread.
I know there are occasional edge cases where you have only enough signal to send an SMS and not an iMessage/Whatsapp/etc -- but SMS has absolutely no place as a verification system.
 
As I’ve commented before, we need an ability to blacklist all communication from sources outside of our contact list. This would be an outright block, not a “silence”. It would have a control center toggle for the times we expect a call or text from an unknown number. It would put an effective end to the spam that ramps up during election cycles. Maybe add filters for words like social media, don’t accept new senders of messages including “Michelle”, “election” etc
Agreed. If we can set our incoming phone calls to "Silence unknown callers" then I just can't imagine why we can't do the same with SMS and iMessage. At the very least they should by default go into some hidden quarentine area instead of mixed in with everything else.
 
I get the same from time to time, but like everyone else is saying, there needs to better filtering. Why can't I default wide-block outside-of-the US/Canada country codes, or block messages from an email address? Wack-a-mole doesn't work!

Didn't realize that they all have the some country code.. Let me block +63 country codes, in their entirety!

View attachment 2472036
The important part here is look at the URL. The USPS doesn't use .xin domains.
 
Why would anyone use USPS to send expensive items? I bet if you used pirateship, UPS was cheaper and faster. 😂
I have never seen UPS be cheaper or faster then USPS. And you can insure things with USPS just like UPS. For example, I needed to mail a letter from northern part of Ohio to northern part of KY and wanted it there in one business day. USPS was $9, UPS $56 for next day and $23 for two day; that was with my pirateship discount.
 
Of late, I've seen legit small businesses that use VoIP services (Dialpad, RingCentral, Zoom, 8x8) get hounded to "register" their SMS services. Basically the US govt wants to know who is sending the message, type of message and purpose. This should make it very easy for them to find the perp. If the business does not register, they risk loosing the capability to send SMS.

If this is the case, why is it so difficult for the FCC/US govt to find out who is sending these kind of messages? If it is originated from outside USA (or a non-US IP), have a ridicoulsly high "surcharge" per message.

Just thinking.....
 
Of late, I've seen legit small businesses that use VoIP services (Dialpad, RingCentral, Zoom, 8x8) get hounded to "register" their SMS services. Basically the US govt wants to know who is sending the message, type of message and purpose. This should make it very easy for them to find the perp. If the business does not register, they risk loosing the capability to send SMS.

If this is the case, why is it so difficult for the FCC/US govt to find out who is sending these kind of messages? If it is originated from outside USA (or a non-US IP), have a ridicoulsly high "surcharge" per message.

Just thinking.....

Well, with the message I screenshotted above, it was an iMessage. Most of my text spam is actually iMessage spam, so all the verification is with Apple.
 
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