My DigitalZone

Text message spam is becoming problematic worldwide. I’ve already gotten a few. Just a few junk messages are not much of a problem for me at this time but I don’t like it nonetheless.

SMS spam is much worse than an email spam because it’s more costly for people who don’t have a text-messaging add-on to their cell plan. For those who don’t have a text message add-on, it cost at least $0.05 per message. I remember we used to be worried about junk faxs. Now we are worried about junk text messages.

In the U.S., two senator propsed m-SPAM act in April this year. (m-SPMA stands for SMA spam.) We don’t have to wait until the bill passes. AT&T and Verizon have already added some features to block unwanted text messages from their customers’ inbox.

Verizon
Log on to vtext.com using your regular Verizon username and password. You’ll see “Text Messaging” menu on the left. Then go to “Preferences” and “Text blocking.” There are different ways to block different types of text messages there.

AT&T
Go to mymessages.wireless.att.com. Choose “Preferences” and go through text-messaging and alias options.

Hope this helps.

Google changed its requirements for a new Gmail account. Here’s what Google says:

If you’d like to sign up for a Gmail address, you need to have a mobile phone that has text-messaging capabilities.
If you don’t have a phone, you may want to ask a friend if you can use his or her number to receive a code.

The main reason for this seems to be spam prevention. I’m glad I already have a Gmail account because I hate to go through some extra steps. Google also says that it stores “each phone number to make sure it is used to create a limited number of accounts.” I hope this method will work but I’m not too keen on yet another entity storing cell phone numbers, which is more private than land phones. Google does assure that “your number will never be sold or shared for marketing purposes without your permission, nor will we contact you using this number without your express permission.”