It's Illegal
It’s illegal to send unsolicited commercial email messages to wireless devices, including cell phones and pagers, unless the sender gets your permission first. It’s also illegal to send unsolicited text messages from an auto-dialer — equipment that stores and dials phone numbers using a random or sequential number generator.
Exceptions to the law:
- Transactional or relationship types of messages. If a company has a relationship with you, it can send you things like statements or warranty information.
- Non-commercial messages. This includes political surveys or fundraising messages.
What are some Examples of Text Spam?
- It often uses the promise of free gifts or product offers, like cheap mortgages, credit cards, or debt relief services to get you to reveal personal information. If you want to claim your gift or pursue an offer, you may need to share personal information, like how much money you make, how much you owe, or your bank account information, credit card number, or Social Security number. Clicking on a link in the message can install malware that collects information from your phone. Once the spammer has your information, it is sold to marketers or, worse, identity thieves.
- It can lead to unwanted charges on your cell phone bill. Your wireless carrier may charge you simply for receiving a text message, regardless of whether you requested it.
- It can slow cell phone performance by taking up space on your phone’s memory.
