unwanted sms message

Have you tried replying with “STOP”, @Brianhughes? 

Hi @Brianhughes,

Welcome to the Community!

Please let us know how you get on following the information that @andewhite  provided.

Kash

STOP isn't working with this one as I have tried a few times thanks. I'm beginning to think ID Mobile should do it. Thanks for replying

Good luck getting that done by iD, @Brianhughes. 

🤞

Probably a scam and sending STOP just verified they have a legitimate number and you’ll get more.
 

I get plagued by spam texts, impossible to stop as they use a different name each time.

@dan1979,

You can contact the PSA if you are having issues with stopping the messages.

Please contact them via this link here and reporting the number: https://psauthority.org.uk/

Kash

The messages are from a different sender every time so pointless to report.

I’ve blocked dozens and dozens of senders via my phone but new ones appear daily all on the same theme - online casinos.

Are they coming through with a sending number or just a senders name @dan1979?

There’s a rather clever scam whereby they send texts from names like Sara (or using other women's names) and blocking them at our end is impossible as there’s no number to block, though you can forward them but where to - as reporting them requires a senders number. They are either for gambling sites (like yours) or dating sites - these have evolved and can be sent to you via the premium text route, thus you pay £1.50 (min) per text received.

Although I’ve not had any spam texts since 1 Feb 2023, I have turned off the premium feature via the iD app.

At least when they had numbers you could forward them to 7726 (keypad spelling is SPAM) as they were then collated by your mobile provider and dealt with from there.

I used to report them first (to 7726) and then block them. If nobody reports them the auto dialers will keep chugging away. But that’s how I used to deal with them.

In Brian’s case if they’re from just the Bank of Scotland then it’s likely just a scam. I personally wouldn’t have responded as they now know the number is active (as you’ve said).

However if the senders name is Royal Bank of Scotland then maybe his current number was used by a RBS customer and they haven’t removed it from their RBS app - IDK. Having said that numbers and names can be doctored and thus we drop our guard when we see one that’s familiar, hence why so many get scammed in the first place.

Hey there ​@dan1979, sorry to hear that.

Unfortunately, we cannot put a block out for any numbers, especially if they are changing their number every-time.

We can only advise to report it as my colleague mentioned, or to block/ignore these texts, which I understand isn’t ideal.

We’d also recommend changing your bill cap to £0.00, just in-case these texts potentially charge you, or this could potentially block the texts entirely.

Thanks,

Tyler

This is what I get. I can report to 7726 but I have to froward the message each time then reply with sender name which is a nuisance.

I use spamhound app with keywords I have set which catches most of them and sends to a spam folder then block them in my settings.  Been getting them for a year now, just started out of the blue one day.

This is what I get. I can report to 7726 but I have to froward the message each time then reply with sender name which is a nuisance

True, that was the ball ache bit of doing that

A mate of mine (he’s like you using an iPhone) uses Textkiller. He thinks his all started when he had a flutter on the gee gees. Since then he gets a tonne of them from every other gambling site on the planet. Maybe they sold his info on (which does sadly happen)

I think my lack of spam texts (and boy am I glad I’ve not had one since Feb 23) could be related to when my then provider (Tesco) sent a service update message stating they were migrating their text service over to Google (RCS) and although Google prompts me to accept their terms I never do. Texts outbound and inbound still work just fine.

But yes looking at that image I can see why you’d get hacked off!

Hi ​@dan1979 

We are very sorry this is happening, we appreciate it must be frustrating. 

Unfortunately, we do no have the ability to block the number from our side. 

You can also speak directly with the Bank of Scotland to request that your details be removed.

Thanks, 

Nat 

The texts started more than 7 years after I last used any gambling sites.  I don’t remember if I gave my number to any sites but none of them bother emailing me these days so I assume accounts were deleted long ago.

They started just after I joined talkmobile so I thought maybe talkmobile had bad filters or something and trying another network (iD in this case) might help. As you can tell, it has not.

Spamhound is working pretty well at least, only the occasional one isn’t caught by filter words.

There’s every chance those details are lurking somewhere on the deep dark web. But there’s something in common, he too was (and still is) on Talkmobile. If they’ve ever had a data breach then that’s a likely way they got to your details.

However, you don’t have to give out your number. Some apps ‘require*’ certain permissions and its those that can harvest your number and, unknowingly to us, they also obtain your email address.

*they don’t actually need all of these permissions to function, but once they get it that’s when things like texts and emails start.

I know my mate spoke to Talkmobile about stopping the text service but he got no joy from them.

I know this topic is regarding texts, but you can check if your email is in the public domain by going here - https://haveibeenpwned.com/ (I have no affiliation to that site).

Anyway, sounds like your app is mostly doing a good job, shame we can’t bombard them too!

Going back to the 7726 service, can any ID Mobile employee confirm if this is working at all?

I switched recently from another operator. With them, when I was forwarding message and number to 7726 I received a “Thank you for forwarding the number that sent you the message. Each report to 7726 helps us prevent nuisance and fraudulent messages reaching our customers. [..]” .   

Since I switched to iD Mobile, when reporting I receive 2 messages:

1. We are sorry but we could not identify the sender of your message. Please call our Customer Support for help.
2. Calls or text to short codes are chargeable and not included in your standard allowance

Specifically, #2 is outrageous when it comes to reporting Spam, but #1 seems saying “yeah, this is none of iD Mobile customers , hence it’s none of our business”.

Hey there ​@ivan.rigoni, thank you for reporting this.

I’d recommend raising this with our live-chat team, who can then raise this with our technical team, to see why the text won’t send, or if it’s chargeable:

https://www.idmobile.co.uk/live-chat

Thanks,

Tyler

7726 is a waste of time.

The spammers change phone number and names constantly.  

My phone has a list of blocked numbers from Lithuania, Burundi, Tonga and the UK and still the spam texts come daily frequently from the same shortname senders.

​@Tyler , you were right - I separately sorted an issue with my texts and the problem has gone away. 

I think I was confused by the text “We are sorry but we could not identify the sender of your message.” which could have been referred to the sender of the message I reported . It referred, instead, to my misconfigured device.

Glad to see that iD Mobile helps tackling SMS spam.