Posted by Gary Rosenzweig on 8/4/08.
You can follow Gary on Twitter.
Gary Rosenzweig shows you how to prevent unwanted text messages by turning off the ability for someone to send you a text message via email. You can also request that text messaging be turned off completely.
Video Transcript (Click to Expand)
Hi, this is Gary Rosenzweig with MacMostNow. Today I’m going to show you how to block some unwanted text messages on your iPhone. So a lot of iPhone users in the US have upgraded to the new plan and have opted not to have any allowance for SMS messages. This means they are not paying the extra 5 dollars to get the 200 text messages they originally got for free every month. Now what this means is they have to pay twenty cents for every text messages. That’s both messages they sent and messages they receive. One of the problems with that is, people can send you SMS messages and you have to pay for it. Now, of course, one way to stop this is tell your friend: “”Hey, don’t text message me”". But, there is a catch. If somebody knows your phone number, they can figure out your AT&T text message email address and they can actually send you an email that will end up as a text message on your phone. Matter of fact, this is a way that spammers are now sending out their messages, they are sending now to random or a list of cell phone numbers, and you get them as an SMS message, and in that case you are paying 20 cents for every message you get, even if it’s spam. Fortunately, there’s a way to turn this off, but its not wholly publiced. So the place you need to go is “”mymessages.wirelles.att.com”". Now, you’re going to need your phone number and a password. This is a separate account from your standard AT&T account, so you may need to set it up the first time. They’re going to send you a text message (you don’t have to pay for that, because it comes from AT&T), then you confirm and you have an account at this subsite of AT&T. Once you do that, you can log in and go to “”blocking options”". They have several options. One is you can block all text messages sent to his mail. This is how spammers get to you, so this is the one you want to check off. Another is you can block all Multimedia messages sent to his email, so check those both off, if you’d like. Another option is, you can set up this alias, in another words, set up a different email address, and people can actually send you text messages by emailing that alias. if you do so, then you can just simply block getting text messages via an email using your phone number. now, this is how the spammers, so this might be a good alternative if you need somebody to be abler to text message you through email. set up an alias, and then block everybody else from sending it to you using your phone number as an email address. so once you’ve set this up, you can also do block lists. So say if, you’re still getting some spam from some spammer that’s actually sending text messages from a text message device, like another cell phone, you can actually block them or you could also allow certain email addresses to send to you. so you got to a bunch of options there. of course the purpose of allowing a specific email address is if you want to block everybody else, but you want to allow you’re spouse or best friend to be able to do it. this way you can turn it on. so this is even useful even if you have an sms messaging plan, but you want to make sure that you’re not getting any spam. now if you’re having a serious problem with sms spam, or you want to make sure you never have that problem, you can call AT&T and request that they turn sms messaging completely on your account. reports are AT&T is one of the companies that allows you to do this, though I haven’t tried it myself. until next time, this is Gary Rosenzweig with MacMostNow.
Hi, this is Gary Rosenzweig with MacMostNow. Today I’m going to show you how to block some unwanted text messages on your iPhone. So a lot of iPhone users in the US have upgraded to the new plan and have opted not to have any allowance for SMS messages. This means they are not paying the extra 5 dollars to get the 200 text messages they originally got for free every month. Now what this means is they have to pay twenty cents for every text messages. That’s both messages they sent and messages they receive. One of the problems with that is, people can send you SMS messages and you have to pay for it. Now, of course, one way to stop this is tell your friend: “”Hey, don’t text message me”". But, there is a catch. If somebody knows your phone number, they can figure out your AT&T text message email address and they can actually send you an email that will end up as a text message on your phone. Matter of fact, this is a way that spammers are now sending out their messages, they are sending now to random or a list of cell phone numbers, and you get them as an SMS message, and in that case you are paying 20 cents for every message you get, even if it’s spam. Fortunately, there’s a way to turn this off, but its not wholly publiced. So the place you need to go is “”mymessages.wirelles.att.com”". Now, you’re going to need your phone number and a password. This is a separate account from your standard AT&T account, so you may need to set it up the first time. They’re going to send you a text message (you don’t have to pay for that, because it comes from AT&T), then you confirm and you have an account at this subsite of AT&T. Once you do that, you can log in and go to “”blocking options”". They have several options. One is you can block all text messages sent to his mail. This is how spammers get to you, so this is the one you want to check off. Another is you can block all Multimedia messages sent to his email, so check those both off, if you’d like. Another option is, you can set up this alias, in another words, set up a different email address, and people can actually send you text messages by emailing that alias. if you do so, then you can just simply block getting text messages via an email using your phone number. now, this is how the spammers, so this might be a good alternative if you need somebody to be abler to text message you through email. set up an alias, and then block everybody else from sending it to you using your phone number as an email address. so once you’ve set this up, you can also do block lists. So say if, you’re still getting some spam from some spammer that’s actually sending text messages from a text message device, like another cell phone, you can actually block them or you could also allow certain email addresses to send to you. so you got to a bunch of options there. of course the purpose of allowing a specific email address is if you want to block everybody else, but you want to allow you’re spouse or best friend to be able to do it. this way you can turn it on. so this is even useful even if you have an sms messaging plan, but you want to make sure that you’re not getting any spam. now if you’re having a serious problem with sms spam, or you want to make sure you never have that problem, you can call AT&T and request that they turn sms messaging completely on your account. reports are AT&T is one of the companies that allows you to do this, though I haven’t tried it myself. until next time, this is Gary Rosenzweig with MacMostNow.
Mention this post on Twitter!
Submit this post to Digg.
Check out the free MacMost weekly email newsletter.
Become a fan of MacMost on Facebook.
You mention that you can block someone sending texts from another device ‘like a cellphone’ – however, in those boxes you can only put email addresses or domains – not individual end-user cell phone numbers. Do you know of any way to block individual phone numbers from sending you texts??
thanks!
I believe you have to call AT&T and ask. But I’m not sure what they will be able to do.
a) Don’t just make this for the WWW and talk about AT&T, talk about it working for ALL iPhones across the world regardless of the plan they have!!
b) There is no (b)
If you think about it, you could see how that would be hard to do. You’d have to do the research for each and every carrier in every country. Would probably need to know a few languages, too. But the basic premise can be used by anyone: call your carrier and ask.
I keep getting text messages from an international number on my 3g iphone., but every text the last four numbers are different from the previos number. Can I block these?
If you can, you’ll need to contact AT&T (or your carrier). So I would start by calling them (dial 611 on your iPhone)
I called AT&T and the only way for you to block someones phone # is to go in to a store and pay $5 extra a mounth to be able to block up to 50 phone numbers. I’m doing it today. I have a crazy ex-girl friend. Supper crazy!
I am getting AIM messages from someone I assume has a spamming virus on their computer. If I reply “block” to the text message, will it block all further messages from that source?
I don’t believe there is any “reply with Block” functionality on AT&T SMS — but you can call them and ask. They may have to manually block that source, or you can use the technique described here.
Gary, I think Marc means that if he sent the word “block” in a text message to the other user, who he believes may have been hacked by a virus, if that will mean the virus will leave him alone.
Try that, also try texting “STOP”. If they are messaging you on your AIM account Marc, you could try blocking them on the AIM website.
Otherwise you might be stuck with an extra 5 bucks a month.
Could you use this to block an individual user if you knew their service? Like, say 0000000000@sms.att.net? Or does this only apply to email addresses?
This only applies to email-based text messages.