Spam text messages on watch but not iPhone

[Bichon]

This afternoon I've received a couple of spam text messages on my Apple Watch that WERE NOT received on my iPhone.

I have a stainless steel watch so it has cellular capability, but I have never purchased service for it. Are cellular watches without a service plan still assigned a different phone number than my iPhone (for emergency 911 calls) that the scammer may have randomly guessed? If not, any others thoughts about what happened?

 

[jz0309]

This afternoon I've received a couple of spam text messages on my Apple Watch that WERE NOT received on my iPhone.

I have a stainless steel watch so it has cellular capability, but I have never purchased service for it. Are cellular watches without a service plan still assigned a different phone number than my iPhone (for emergency 911 calls) that the scammer may have randomly guessed? If not, any others thoughts about what happened?

no phone # without activation/plan.

I've seen messages coming in on AW before they arrive on the phone, but, how do you know they're spam? identified by your carrier? by the iPhone? processing messages might take some time on iPhone ...
I have certainly seen emails on my AW that didn't show up in my inbox but rather were in the spam folder (gmail)

 

[Bichon]

I know they are spam by the content. Someone saying they are from Kelly Services with a part time job that pays $500 for a few hours a week - please respond to this WhatsUp number. I probably should have said "scam" instead of "spam".

This was in Messages, not email. And hours later, the messages still don't show on my iPhone, only on the watch. Very puzzling...

 

[Chizep]

I just experienced this same exact situation. And my setup is very similar to yours. I do have a data plan on the watch though. In fact, it is my daughters old phone number. But Verizon told me it won't receive texts to that number, it's strictly a data plan with no SMS capability (and I've had the watch for about 1.5 years.) First time this has happened.

 

[jagfan]

This afternoon I've received a couple of spam text messages on my Apple Watch that WERE NOT received on my iPhone.

I have a stainless steel watch so it has cellular capability, but I have never purchased service for it. Are cellular watches without a service plan still assigned a different phone number than my iPhone (for emergency 911 calls) that the scammer may have randomly guessed? If not, any others thoughts about what happened?

I have experienced the same in the past couple days. The offending texts have never shown up on my iPhone. My Apple watch does not have cellular capability.

 

[Lab34]

Hi, just to say, I have the same problem since a couple of days too (since 10.5 but maybe not related). My watch is not cellular, the spam is nowhere on my iphone, only on imessage on the watch. This is weird.

 

[Lab34]

no phone # without activation/plan.

I've seen messages coming in on AW before they arrive on the phone, but, how do you know they're spam? identified by your carrier? by the iPhone? processing messages might take some time on iPhone ...
I have certainly seen emails on my AW that didn't show up in my inbox but rather were in the spam folder (gmail)

The content is clearly scam, something saying I have a parcel blocked somewhere, and I have to connect to a suspicious url to resolve the issue... the sender is a dumb gmail address... I don't have a message content blocker on the phone.

 

[rob2bob]

I know this is an old thread... but today I have had similar scenerio. A spam/junk iMessage showed on my iPad and not on my iPhone or my Mac. Weird. (Messages configured the same across all 3 devices.)

 

[Dotmom]

Same thing is happening for me. The message shows up as a text message from an email address. It never comes through anywhere else that I receive text messages. There's no way to report it as spam, and there's no option to block the address.

Still looking for info on this across the interwebs.

 

[shady360]

Same, received a message on my Apple watch from a 'recruiter' with a Hotmail (does that even still exist??) address, about a job that pays a ridiculous amount of money for 1 hour of work, and they want me to send a message via Whatsapp. Message is nowhere to be found on my iPhone though. Checked all the Messages filters (eg, All Messages, Unknown Senders, etc.).

 

[DebzyG]

I’ve just had the same thing happen. (I do have a data plan on my iWatch). Some scam message pretending to be the delivery company Evri wanting me to follow a link to gain access to a fictional parcel. 2 messages came through at once. First time this has happened.

 

[Blueser100]

I just had the same thing happen five minutes ago. Message on my Apple Watch. No cellular plan. Message not found on my iPhone or Mac. Sender address is an email address. Message starts "My name is Debby and we are hiring part time..." How does this happen? Is it a hack? Has anyone reported it to Apple?

 

[kbcompton]

I just had the same thing happen five minutes ago. Message on my Apple Watch. No cellular plan. Message not found on my iPhone or Mac. Sender address is an email address. Message starts "My name is Debby and we are hiring part time..." How does this happen? Is it a hack? Has anyone reported it to Apple?

Getting the same message only to my apple watch. Guessing no one has found the solution?

 

[Blueser100]

Getting the same message only to my apple watch. Guessing no one has found the solution?

I got another message on my watch (nothing on phone/Mac) but from a different email address. Nothing since but there sure are a lot of people who have the same issue, going back a couple years too. I see posts on Reddit as well. I'll reach out to Apple Support next week and will report back what they say.

In the meantime, I see this thread on the Apple Community (hope it's ok to crosspost). I went into my MacBook Message settings and noticed that one of my email addresses was included as able to receive texts. I turned that off. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/256060479?sortBy=rank

 

[krfr]

Having the same issue. My AW was replaced last week and it’s when it started happening for me. I guess 3-5 messages a day just to the watch itself. So frustrating.

 

[moyjoy]

I went down this rabbit hole earlier today when it happened to me and found an explanation.

Explanation from Reddit:

Apple Watch is optimized to allow notifications, and while they offer more interactive ability for IPhone users, Pixel and other non IOS phones have to get them too. There’s no way to block text messages directly in the Watch settings, it follows whatever settings you’ve set in your iPhone. iPhone allows you to block emails, but that’s from the Mail App (which is simply a front end so it’s adding instructions to the actual servers, IIRC), while the Phone (App) can only block phone numbers.

But, there’s a (very old) loophole scammers can easily use from their (basement, sweat shop, call center, Starbucks) computers: “email” to text, which is still available from all carriers (fyi, ATT will disconnect it in June 2025, VZ at least lets you opt out of having it active). One tab opened to the carrier’s website, another to the latest data breach dump: the scammers can copy paste on autopilot. So it’s neither an email nor a SMS, it’s a message sent directly to your device phone number from your carrier’s website. Yet, AFAIK the iPhone only routes calls, SMS, and iMessages (including those from iPhone users iCloud email addresses) to the Phone and Messages apps respectively and so these carrier website routed messages may not appear there, but probably would on that carrier’s “feature” and “dumb” phones.

The Apple Watch, having to function with all smart phones, allows notifications liberally, limited only by paired smartphones that can either block numbers or email addresses, including these carrier delivered messages (only masquerading as sent from emails, ie whatever text looks like an email address to the “From” box’s code is accepted) sent from their own website to their customers’ devices as a faux SMS. Yet since it’s not an actual SMS from an actual number it’s not recognized by the Messages app, while to the Watch it shows up as a carrier “message.” As far as I can tell, that’s what it explains it.

 

[ZebraDude]

very interesting....I just received 2 from a "Monica" with a scam job offer.......just on my LTE Series 7 on Tmobile...