Let’s talk about spam texts and emails

Nice article. Good information and makes people aware of the growing problem. Keep up the great work FTC!

I don't even answer a phone call that I don't recognize. It's usually a telemarketer and I'm intelligent enough to find what I want or need.

A large number of spam emails 900 in 5 minutes is a warning sign. Hidden somewhere in there can be a legitimate notice that a bank account was opened in your name. It happened to me. I wish I had known.

I advise against unsubscribing from spam emails. All that does is confirm that it is a good, active address. Just create a filter if it reaches your inbox, and ignore it.

Thank you so much! I needed this information today and yesterday. Knowledge is powerful. We as consumers can better understand and protect our personal information.

Thank you for this valued information, we are constantly bombarded with these hits on our phone and email. Keep in touch.

Great Article. I learned something new, as I get bombed with continuous political texts, even though I "report as spam and delete" on my iPhone. Thanks for providing a text number to report those unwanted text messages. I'm sure there are many people who don't know this information.

an increasingly dangerous online environment each year---
an unfortunate consequence of garbage email is that an "unsubscrible" linkmay also unleash malware scripts. I use script blockers even on sites I trust, and block 3rd party links/cookies wherever possible (until the trusted site session functionality breaks)

Unsubscribing may not be a good option all the time. Fine with legit sites but unsubscribe can confirm a “real” recipient to a scammer who can share your address and increase targeting for phishing.

Got to ensure you don't mislead unsuspecting readers and make them think the phishing scams have actual methods of Unsubscribing within them......
"Unsubscribe from unwanted emails. Getting fewer unwanted emails helps you avoid clicking on links that can lead to a phishing attack."

All of the true scam spam phishing mail usually has a couple"Unsubscribe" links overlapping the various multiple bogus addresses they copy paste at the end.

I use 7726 all the time. BUT a lot of my spam texts arrive as MMS - requiring me to DOWNLOAD it to read. I will NOT d/L any MMS from unknown numbers. But am unable to forward any MMS texts to 7726, only texts that arrive written out. I immediately block any unknown # or person, however they arrive.
Cell is Samsung S23 Ultra, up to date on everything.
What do I do about this MMS issue?
Thank you

( BTW
I probably have the largest collection of blocked scam, spam or illegal debt collectors in the US.)

Very, very valuable information!

Using phone’s report junk when getting spam texts does not work. I am beyond frustrated and angry with the amount of political texts I receive, a lot of them asking for money. They still come, from different numbers. It is unfairly time consuming on my part to daily, multiple times per day to delete these unwanted texts which use up valuable space on my phone. Something absolutely has to be done about this.

I get an abundance of these All the time. I was was hacked and scammed 5 times last year. They got into everything. And basically got away with it. I just delete everything now or send it to spam. Thank you for caring. And for your help.

While I greatly appreciate the FTC's advice, I would highly recommend that this advice come to us another way, rather than to have us click on the FTC email and their link to read the advice, & does anyone else see the irony in the FTC's advice besides me? (i.e. the FTC is saying not to click on emails from people we don't know, & the links in the emails, in order to avoid malware, spam, etc., yet, they want us to click on random emails we receive from the FTC - we think - & their link - we think its their link anyway - to read their advice about malware & spam & getting our pc's hacked into.....?

It makes zero sense to me, as to why the FTC would encourage this .....?
What's wrong with this picture, right?

I filed with your agency (FTC) along with the Police,My Bank, Credit Card Company (Master Card) My Cell Phone Carrier and Gift Card Companies)

Recently someone one has been sending me emails from People Magazine. Although I never subscribed, I am not able to unsubscribe. When I try to, I get a message “that my unsubscribe failed. But the only thing I can do is delete them. But they continue to come. I know that the messages have fake addresses. Awhile ago I tried to send all these fake emails to a spam address and even to a government agency—well, they came right back to me

WE HAVE TRIED FOR YEARS TO TELL YAHOO MAIL ABOUT THE SPAM / FRAUD BANK EMAILS ETC,,,. BUT NEVER GET THROUGH

In your article there is plenty of ways for the service SUBSCRIBER to avoid scams. Why aren't the service PROVIDERS doing anything? With today's level of technology, it ought to be pretty easy to notice a number or email address sending THOUSANDS of messages per day/hour. But, as usual, our protection is on US. Why?

I am 82 yrs. old and my phone has been ringing every 15 min. and my phone shows up Scam. For me running to the home phone every time it rings is terrible! I have the list of phone numbers they have been calling and some are the same! What can I do to stop this? I am too old for this kind of stuff. Can you help me please?

How does a supposed anti-virus get hacked this easily, and put us consumers at risk? I'm elderly, my computer a new Dell (purchased on Amazon), and I was told to pay over $500.00 for your service. I cannot afford this anymore, and do not know how you have access to my credit card. Please respond?

I am constantly receiving call from people from Yelp subcontractors? I think, they now know I am annoyed by this and these morons think its game. I find it very unprofessional, as I continue to say I am not interested In their services. What can be done?

Endless advice from so many sources on how to protect ourselves from internet crooks!
But I am still waiting to hear on the news of some of those crooks being tracked down and jailed by any branch of government, or if from foreign countries, sanctions if they don't start jailing their local crooks. Willie Sutton wouldn't bother robbing banks were he still alive--he would be mining the internet. Internet crooks do FAR more damage than any old-time bank robber ever did--I wish police agencies would go after the modern crooks like they did with antique crooks--and not put what seems to be the entire burden for protection on customers.

Sometimes email unsubscribe buttons don't work, or they don't include the instructions on how to unsubscribe. This goes against the CAN-SPAM laws. How do you report this?

I received a text message from a short code number saying they have $1000 credit card for me. I would just like to report this key is the day before this happened my own credit union denied me to refinance my car because I was behind two payments on one thing so I believe this to be a scam and I believe it be they want me to click on this link or do this, I actually responded to that question yes, Illike to have a loan, but I did not give them no information at all. I didn’t even respond to the original text, but then I didn’t. I said who is this? I don’t know who you are why would I give you? Why would I click on this link to finish? Fill out any information? I don’t believe this . I see no name no company name no nothing I have no clue who they are just one short code number not even whole phone number copy paste. It didn’t come out that way.

I would like to know how I can verify if an email is legitimate. I get very real looking emails from what is supposed to be the post office or paypal and even expirian and equifax. How does someone tell the difference without being suggested to use another app you don't know if you can rely on to find the legitimate messages?
Also why are companies allowed to use names other than who they are? This makes validating bank and card transactions trying when you now need to guess where each transaction is from when they are using an alternate name that is unfamiliar. And fraud charges get lost within the mix of valid charges when you now can't even identify the valid charges on your statement due to improper names and the like. For example how am I to know the label ev12dsq is a restaurant I ate at?

What does one do to not loose valid emails in and among the spam and junk mail folders? I've missed several important notices this way.

I have submitted the worst of the scams received, but continue to get them after reporting to FTC.

I learned more from the comments than the information provided. I do not answer unknown callers or emails; but, I do block them. And, yes, it seems to increase spam ten-fold.

This is very nice article. We have reached the point where we can't accept spam calls, spam emails, or spam text messages. They are nothing but online thieves and attackers. Their idea is to steal your information and later all your money.

Honestly, with the technology we have to day I don't understand why there isn't more of a dent in reducing this kind of stuff. Yes, hackers are always going to be figuring out the next work around but we don't seem to have made an impact as yet. Let's use AI against them.

I get emails from CenturyLink saying I need to click a link in email to update my email account. They do not come from CentruryLink. A long list of other email addresses are shown in the email. I have spoken to CenturyLink but the emails vanished after the real CenturyLink replied asking me to forward the emails to them. Just vanished!

someone video called me yesterday 8/6/24 from my son's gmail , I thought it was him then I answered, no one was there to answer, I hung up, then texted my son he said it was not him, will that be a way for scammers to get into my phone and get my info???? what should I do?

Office Depot emailed me minutes after I made an in store purchase. I did not give them my email address. I am on the do not not call/text/email.

Good info, please continue with useful articles.