Are you bombarded with spam texts? Little known iPhone hack to stop spam

Americans are drowning in spam text messages masquerading as acquaintances, job opportunities and even government officials.

Many iPhone users have expressed their frustration with spam messages, with some claiming to have received more than 400 this month alone.

While users can reply “Stop” to remove themselves from the list, Apple has a little-known hack to prevent unknown senders from texting them directly.

Users can filter messages to another folder, which means they won’t receive text alerts.

“Scammers send fake text messages to trick you into giving them your personal information — such as your password, account number or Social Security number,” the Federal Trade Commission said.

“If they get this information, they can access your email, bank or other accounts. Or they could sell your information to other scammers.

Apple already has a system in place for times like this – and it lives in Settings.

Users go to Settings, select Messages and scroll down to Message Filtering where you can turn on “Filter Unknown Senders”.

Once the option is switched to ‘Filters’, it will appear in the top left of iMessage where all spam text messages will be sent – and users will not receive a notification when they arrive.

Another option is to block the sender of the text message, but the individual or bot may be spamming you from another number.

While many spam messages try to trick Americans into handing over their information or money, there is a flood of political messages urging them to vote and choose a party.

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One user on X wrote: ‘I’m afraid I’ll look back on my life from my deathbed and regret the sheer amount of time I spent typing ‘stop’ into political text messages.’

The flurry of messages is likely due to the Supreme Court’s 2021 loosening of bulk texting authorization requirements, Axios reported.

The data showed that in 2020, the Republican National Convention sent more than 225 million texts to get voters to the polls.

“Texting is an important tool, but of course, like many people, I’m annoyed by how many I get and how often I have to text STOP,” Melissa Michelson, dean of Menlo College, told Time Magazine.

For this year, Republicans are once again in the lead over Democrats when it comes to firing campaign messages — the political group has sent twice as many so far.

Political news isn’t the only thing bothering Americans, as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reported that illegal and bogus robocalls are the top consumer complaints.

“This includes complaints from consumers whose numbers are spoofed or whose calls are mistakenly blocked or flagged as a possible scam call by a robocall-blocking app or service,” the FCC said.

“Scammers are calling about your Social Security, tax or health care number.

“They say that if you don’t pay or refuse to give them your personal information, something bad will happen or you will lose some government benefit. It’s a scam.”

The agency urged the public not to respond to unknown senders and to contact their phone company to help block these calls.