SMS Spam

[Velvis]

An elderly neighbor has started getting a bunch of text message spam sent to her Verizon Android cell phone from a bunch of different numbers
Like 6-7 messages over the last 3 days, previously she had none.

I showed her how to block each the message so it won't happen from that specific number again at least.

But it got me thinking what would cause this to happen all of a sudden?

And if it continues would she contact Verizon? Do they have anything on their end to block spam?

 

[fincoder]

Phone numbers of elderly people often end up on lists that are traded between scammers. Exactly how the numbers end up on these lists is a mystery, but presumably dodgy organisations or employees sell the info illegally.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Androids built in spam protection works great, at least if it's a Pixel...(not sure if there's a diff 'tween Pixel and vanilla Android for that)
I normally get a ton of sms spam (I can see it through my Phone app that links my phone to my computers..it doesn't filter out the spam). But on my phone, nothing but good text shows. Spam remains quite when arrives.

The built in phone spam blocker of Android (at least Pixel)...best there is!

 

[britechguy]

@YeOldeStonecat

Google really seems to have taken spam filtering, regardless of venue, to state of the art, and has been there for some time.

I've never seen anyone, including Microsoft, have the level of accurate, and virtually complete, spam blocking that Google does. Or at least they don't in "out of the box" state. Google's got this nailed with zero effort required on the part of end users.

 

[timeshifter]

Androids built in spam protection works great, at least if it's a Pixel

Does that apply to phone call spam too on the Pixel?

 

[britechguy]

I've only ever seen phone spam handled by one's carrier. I'll be curious if that's different on the Pixel series.

 

[HCHTech]

I also have Verizon and a Samsung Galaxy, so not pure Android. Anyway, either Verizon or the message app on my phone (I believe I'm using the Google message app) is doing a pretty good job filtering out the spam texts. I get almost none on the phone, but as @YeOldeStonecat said, I can see them all in the PhoneLink app on my pc. These days there are at least a 1/2 dozen every day, mostly all political.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Does that apply to phone call spam too on the Pixel?

Yes...it is excellent. It's right in the phone app itself (as is the texting filter.....right in the text app itself). So that makes me quite sure it's a feature of Android OS, because it is not a separate app.

Doing a quick Google-Fu....it does appear to be a special feature of Android OS exclusive to Pixels....one of the things Google did to kick them up a notch or three.

How to protect your Google Pixel smartphone from spam calls and texts

Spammers are the worst, but your phone can help stop them

www.androidpolice.com

Pixel phones are void of so much 3rd part crap-apps too....carrier skins, etc. Pure Android OS...lean and mean...and a few more native features.

In past phones I had tried quite a few of those those add-on apps that do spam blocking, robocall blocking, etc. Much like other free-ware you install on your computer, those apps you put on your phone stuff your phone with unwanted stuff too, and they generally by default invade your contact list (read the fine print). I don't want that stuff. And...IME...the Pixel filters work better anyways!

 

[trevm999]

I haven't turned spam call filtering on on my pixel, but I don't get many calls. However, I still get messages if a call is suspected spam, which is useful. Also I enjoy the call screening feature.

 

[Sky-Knight]

I refuse to own anything but an A series Pixel due to the combination of features / price AND the anti-spam feature.

Nothing else can touch it, and I can't live without it.

The fact they are always supported by Dexcom helps too.

 

[Markverhyden]

If it doesn't caller ID to someone/something I know it rolls over to VM. If they really want to speak to me they'll leave a VM. I have noticed in the last couple of years or a so several of the text messages have had that certain odeur de porc abattu about them.

 

[britechguy]

If it doesn't caller ID to someone/something I know it rolls over to VM. If they really want to speak to me they'll leave a VM. I have noticed in the last couple of years or a so several of the text messages have had that certain odeur de port abattu about them.

This has been my practice as well. Once cell phones became the most common phone type, and people stopped changing numbers when they moved because "there's no such thing as long distance" in the cellular network within large contiguous regions (the US and Canada for my carrier) there is no way to know whether what looks like an out of area caller is really out of area or that what looks like a local caller is local. If it's not a number I recognize or a number in my contacts (which, of course, shows as the contact name) it's straight to voicemail.

Just the other day there was a news story locally about an uptick in smishing, and I had received one of these messages purporting to be from the USPS that I knew could not be from the USPS.

 

[Markverhyden]

read the fine print

I can't tell you the number of times "fine print" has put the customer in a tizzy. Back in the dialup days it was regular stream every time the modem standard changed to allow a higher through put.

User - "you upgraded my modem to 28.8 from 14.4 but I'm only getting 18 or 19 at best"
Me - "Do you remember when I told you 28.8 would be the maximum speed and most likely you get close to it.
User - "No. Where does it say that?"
Me - Using either the unopened box off the shelf or pointing it out on their product box. "Right there". Usually a place where the customer would never look like the user guide or the disclaimers on box ends.

On a side note the only times I ever got close to max speeds was if my machine was running linux and I connected to a quality node like Earthlink or TheWorld. They were never overloaded like AOL, CompuServ, or Prodigy.