Here’s how to make text message spammers, robocallers and telemarketers pay you money, because it’s illegal for them to text or call a cell phone.

If you’re being plagued by cell text message spam (cell txt msg spam) like this one we received from 702-541-4047 – “Do you have $20,000+ in CREDIT CARD DEBT? Our national program REDUCES it by HALF! Reply “DEBT” to see if you qualify! (cuturdebts.com-optout,reply:out)” – you’re not alone. (What is SMS? Short Message Service SMS service is a way to send short text messages directly to a cell phone). The problem is that those unwanted SMS messages that you see as cell phone spam, the sender sees as an SMS campaign. Those rude SMS text messages – often anonymous SMS text messages – are bulk SMS messages sent by the SMS sender as a text message advertising campaign (often facilitated by free SMS text message services). Sending SMS text messaging spam is illegal in most states, but figuring out how to go about reporting spam received on your cell phone can be tough. Here’s how to submit your spam that you receive via SMS message to the right authorities, as well as how to stop it. (Bonus: The elusive Verizon customer service phone number!)

With the new “Do you owe over $10,000 to the IRS?” SMS text message 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.

Last week we told you both how to stop SMS spam, and how to report SMS spam. But now we want to talk about a particularly nasty form of SMS spam: smishing, which is the act of phishing by SMS for private information, often to be used for identity theft. These smishing attempts take the form of text messages which come to your phone saying things like “We’re confirming you’ve signed up for our dating service,” “Your account has been suspended,” or “(Random) bank is confirming your purchase.”