If you’ve ever received shady, unsolicited text messages that promise $3 million prizes, free cruises, or gift cards, you’ve experienced smishing (a portmanteau for “SMS phishing”). These scam texts—which try to steal your money, identity, or both—can often turn threatening. Threats of jail time, IRS bills, and lawsuits have all been employed to harass recipients and try to convince them to turn over financial information or money. More than $86 million was lost to the scam messages last year. Here’s what you need to know to keep yourself safe.

Wirecutter privacy editor Thorin Klosowski said there’s not one device that’s more susceptible to receiving scam texts than others. Rather, the issue is with the phone number itself. If you’re being smished, it’s probably because your phone number has been sold to telemarketers by data providers. Which means it’s nearly impossible to keep your phone information from being compromised. If you’ve ever called a toll-free number, given your number to businesses, or ordered stuff online, you are a potential target for smishing. On top of that, 40 million T-Mobile customers had their data exposed last year, making their phone numbers, Social Security information, and addresses available to the persistent scammers.

Smishing is prohibited by federal law. The CAN-SPAM Act, created in 2003 to eliminate deceptive messages on electronic devices, requires companies to get permission from consumers before sending emails or texts. If you opt out of messages or haven’t given permission to receive them, read below to find out how to report and prevent them in the future.

Thorin said there are a number of things you can do to make smishing less annoying.

Opt out of receiving marketing calls and texts in the first place. To indicate that you do not want to be solicited, you can uncheck the box on company websites. And add your number to the Federal Trade Commission’s National Do Not Call Registry.
If you still receive smishing messages, ignore them. Don’t reply or click links that are found in the pesky messages. Responding just opens the door for you to be manipulated.
Block the sender, and forward the text to SPAM (7726).
Download free call-blocker apps, like T-Mobile Scam Shield and Verizon Call Filter.
Report any scam texts you receive to the FTC’s Report Fraud site.
Update your phone’s security settings every time you’re prompted. This will help to remove bugs and prevent viruses.
Filter out messages from unknown senders (see how to do this, below).
For iPhones, click Settings > Messages, and then enable Filter Unknown Senders. After that is enabled, you can go into Settings > Notifications > Messages > Customize Notifications, and disable “Unknown Senders” to stop any unwanted alerts.

For Android phones, tap the three-dot icon in messages > Settings > Spam protection, and check the Enable Spam Protection toggle. Once this is enabled, your phone will analyze texts and auto-block messages that look suspicious.

When it comes to scam texts, it’s best to be on your guard. Remember that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. The IRS does not summon people through texts. And the likelihood of being notified via a misspelled text that you’ve won millions of dollars is relatively small. So take our recommended precautions, report empty threats, and get ready to kiss those annoying scam texts goodbye.

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Christina Williams, “How to Stop Scam Texts,” NY Times, November , 2021, how-to-stop-scam-texts/