Are you also among those who are fed up of spam messages? If yes, then keep reading the post to know some ways to stop them. You can block, report, and filter these spam messages even before you receive them.
Thanks to evolving app ecosystem and support of government, you can filter any spam messages from your smartphone. Not only do spam messages cause a disturbance, they also create clutter on your phone.
What are Spam Messages?
Spam messages are junk messages or advertisement that are sent to smartphones through SMS. These messages generally contain phishing scams, links to phishing websites, inappropriate ads and so forth.
Apart from being a memory clutter, spam messages often redirect you to infected links. This may happen if you accidentally click on a link in the spam SMS.
How to Safeguard Against Spam?
Seriously, it’s not just a matter of clutter now, it can be seriously harmful to your smartphone. With attacks like Petya on computers, we may see something similar threatening the smartphone universe.
Spam Filtering Apps
The easy way to tackle Spam messages is to download spam blocking apps. While some apps will block the numbers you’ve asked them to block, others will block the spam coming in from anywhere.
Truecaller
The call-filtering application now comes with SMS blocking as well. You can block all the spam messages and even selected people from sending you an SMS. It can come in handy as it comes with a large user-database, which means good identification and blocking of spam.
Calls Blacklist
This is another popular spam blocking app. It works similar to Truecaller but comes with a bigger user base. The app allows you to block all incoming calls as well as messages from selected, anonymous or unknown numbers.
Alternatives
One of the major disadvantages of these blocking apps is that they list your number on them. The listed numbers on the user database of such apps means that advertisers can use it to reach you. Also, you ‘need’ to get enlisted on the apps to use them. So here are some alternatives.
Kaspersky Mobile Antivirus: Web Security and AppLock
You can download Kaspersky to monitor your phone against malware, virus, theft, phishing, and unwanted call/SMS blocking.
Although this will cost you Rs. 600 per year, it is a one stop solution for many things. Not only call/SMS filtering, but you also get Web protection which saves you from phishing websites and malware. Also, as an anti-virus app, Kaspersky protects your Android wear as well.
TRAI Do Not Disturb
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has also started an initiative to stop Spam messages on your smartphones. To make use of this service, you can send an SMS to 1909.
In the SMS, you have to write
“Unsolicited Message, <Spammer’s number>, Date of message <DD/MM/YY>”.
Anyhow, this service is useful only if there’s a single number sending you spam messages. In the case of different numbers, you’ll need to report each number separately.
