SMS scams are nothing new, and they range from a mild annoyance to convincing scams that rip Aussies off to the tune of thousands. Starting today, users on the Telstra network can take an additional step to report SMS scams which will help Telstra’s network block these messages from being sent to other users.
If you receive a junk SMS you can forward the message (you only need to forward the text of the message, not the sender’s mobile number) to 7226, which reads as SCAM on a telephone keypad.
Telstra’s system will then use forwarded messages to build and improve its database of suspected scam SMS so that scam SMS can be blocked in future.
There are other steps users receiving scam messages can take, for example a popular scam tactic is impersonating Australia’s tollway operators – Linkt is a major one – and often these operators provide a direct means via their websites to report scam messages so they can try to take action against the imposters.
Besides reporting messages, you can also block scam message numbers which may prevent future messages coming through, but typically scammers use different numbers every time so this may not be especially effective.
Do you often receive scam messages? What steps do you take?
