Countermeasures
There are several actions and strategies that can help reduce SMS spam.
Legal actions can be effective and remunerative.
Many carriers (such as AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint in the US) allow subscribers to report spam by forwarding the spam messages to short code 7726 (spells SPAM on a traditional phone keypad) (33700 in France). It's reported that 1/2 million spam reports in France resulted in the disconnection of 300 spammers, and many more cease-and-desist orders were sent.
Some spam countermeasures depend on detection, and there are two developments in that area: a GSMA pilot spam reporting program, and the development of Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) standards for mobile spam reporting. In February 2010, the GSM Association has announced a pilot program that will allow subscribers to report SMS spam by forwarding it to short code '7726' which spells "SPAM" on most phones. AT&T Mobility, Korea Telecom, and SFR announced their participation, and a large number of other mobile operators are expected to join after the pilot period.
The Open Mobile Alliance is expected to complete its "SpamRep" standards which will allow users of mobile devices to report email, SMS, MMS and IM spam using a 'This-Is-Spam' button or menu item, as users of wired email systems are now doing.
Another helpful SMS spam-reduction technique is guarding one's cell phone number. One of the biggest sources of SMS spam is number harvesting carried out by Internet sites offering "free" ring tone downloads. In order to facilitate the downloads, users must provide their phones' numbers; which in turn are used to send frequent advertising messages to the phone. Wording in the sites' Terms of Service intended to make this legal have not survived court challenge.
Another approach to reducing SMS spam that is offered by some carriers involves creating an alias address rather than using the cell phone's number as a text message address. Only messages sent to the alias are delivered; messages sent to the phone's number are discarded. A New York Times article provided detailed information on this in 2008.
Another countermeasure is to use a service that provides a public phone number and publishes the SMS messages received at that number to a publicly accessible website. Google Voice can be used in this way, but with numbers and messages kept private.
Finally, most cell phone providers offer the option of completely disabling all text messaging services on a user's account. This extreme solution, however, is satisfactory only for those users who have neither the need nor the desire to utilize SMS at all.
In June 2009, three major Chinese carriers—China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom—imposed limits on text messaging in order to crack down on spam SMS. Under the restrictions, a phone number can send no more than 200 messages per hour and 1000/day on weekdays.
In the United States, recipients of SMS spam can file a complaint with the FCC using form 1088G. Phone users in the United Kingdom can use the Information Commissioner's complaints page.
Read more about this topic: Mobile Phone Spam