With the new “Do you owe over $10,000 to the IRS?” SMS text msg spam making the rounds (ours came from 857-205-2199) we thought it would be a good time to remind you that cell phone spam (including SMS spam) is illegal, and there is a way to report it.
The text message spam we received from 18572052199 read, in full, “Do you owe over $10,000 to the IRS? If you’re employed, gov’t program REDUCES BACK TAXES by 70 percent. Free, private consult: Reply “YES” (optout,reply:out)”
Now, the first thing to note is, as with any spam, you shouldn’t have to opt out of something for which you never asked in the first place.
But second, you can fight back by reporting text message SMS spam to both your cell carrier, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
As we explained in our article How to Stop SMS Text Spam and How to Report SMS Txt Msg Spam, the first thing to do is to “call your cell phone provider and complain, loudly, to them. And while you are doing so, ask for a credit for the text message received. Even if you don’t pay for the first X text messages you receive under your plan, ask for a credit so that the spam message doesn’t count towards X.”
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Then go to the special page over at the FCC where they have a form specifically designed to make it easy to report cell phone spam and text message spam:
Report cell phone spam and text message spam to the FCC here.
Now, go give those text message spammers what for!
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