This news is going to be music to the ears of anyone who has gotten tired of all of the scam text messages.
The Federal Communications Commission has heard everyone’s complaints and they are finally stepping up to the plate. Thanks to their latest regulations, this issue is being targeted specifically. Consumers who are receiving a sizable amount of scam texts will no longer have to worry about them.
If a robotic text is being sent that is believed to be part of a scam, it will automatically be blocked by a mobile service provider. At long last, we are finally safe from all of these annoying messages. Even if you are someone who is savvy enough to avoid scams, these messages are still a huge pain in the backside.
So, what are the criteria here? According to the FCC, any messages that are sent from “invalid, unallocated, or unused numbers” are the ones that are going to be blocked. The mobile carriers are also going to be required to block all “numbers that the subscriber to the number has self-identified as never sending text messages, and numbers that government agencies and other well-known entities identify as not used for texting.”
Carriers are also going to need to establish a point of contact. This allows the senders to inquire with the company about any texts that have been blocked. These new regulations are coming into play because there has been a major increase in complaints about the number of scam texts that are being sent. Mobile carriers have seen a whopping 500% uptick in these queries.
It was time for something to be done and we are glad to see that the FCC was willing to do so. Robo text complaints were not as common as they are today. From the years of 2015 to 2022, they have risen from 3,300 per year to nearly 20,000. From there, you have to take into account that these were the people who were willing to file a complaint.
If 20,000 people were annoyed enough to file a complaint, just imagine how many people were fed up in general. Unlike spam phone calls, which are easy to hang up on or ignore, these types of texts pose a greater danger. They are read by the recipient immediately and they contain links to harmful websites that will install malware on the phone that they are sent to.