Spam, we've got your number.
Fight back against unwanted texts.
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Tired of robocalls and their spammy text cousins? On today’s episode of Up To Speed, Erin Kristoff and Alex Lawson from our communications team share some good-to-know info on spam texts, what Verizon is doing to stop them, and what you can do to help.
Did you know that American consumers send and receive roughly 20 billion text and media messages a day? And that on any given day, Verizon detects and blocks millions of those as unwanted spam texts?
Well, it’s true.
We’ve implemented systems at the network level and deployed targeted tools to monitor and help block spam. For example, one of our tools helps us identify unusual behavior from new numbers, so we can act faster on suspicious numbers that send out an unusual number of texts.
There’s also plenty you can do in the fight to stop spam texters. It’s easy to report a spam text by forwarding to 7726 on your mobile phone.
What was that number again? 7726. An easy way to remember it is “SPAM,” using the keypad numbers that correspond with the letters in the word “SPAM.”
There’s also a few common sense ways to be careful.
- Only share your phone number with people you know.
- Don't ever click on website links in a text message unless you are absolutely sure it’s authentic.
- Slow down. Criminals want you to act first and think later. Legitimate organizations will never ask for personal details via email or text message.
And that’s not all, we’re after those pesky calls too. We continue to strengthen our efforts to protect customers from robocalls.
Last month, we talked about “honeypots” – lines across our network created to identify and observe illegal robocall campaigns. You could also call them traps for bad actors. In fact, we work with the Industry Traceback Group and other carriers to trace them back to the source and notify law enforcement.
You’ve also heard us mention STIR/SHAKEN, the technology that helps ensure customers’ calls are coming from who they say they are. Now we’ve taken the extra step of enhancing our Caller ID feature for our Fios Digital Voice customers. This way, customers have confidence that the caller ID information they receive for a verified call is accurate.
You can learn more about our robocalling efforts here.
It’s all in a day’s work for Verizon. We’re doing our best to keep you and your families safe and nuisance free.
