Maybe Tim Cook will listen when his phone number and his iPhone is getting calls and messages like this.

it's not an Apple or Google issue. Blame your carrier for weak spam filters on the SMS gate

Also you can be the one who's to blame too. Don't put your phone number to any websites/apps you register to. These are mostly the ones who sell your phone number to scammers like that. Or get a burner phone number to use it when a website asks for a phone number. I give my phone number only to doctors, official gov offices etc. and I've never got a single spam in my inbox 🤷🏻‍♂️

Same goes with email, use aliases which you can disable whenever they start to receive spam (like anonaddy or now even iCloud has that feature "hide my email")

The fact that Apple won't just create a paid version of iMessage for Andriod is really interesting to me.

Either that or I wish we would adopt other messaging apps like other countries seem to do (example: We used Kakao Talk when I lived in Korea. Nobody ever used the regular texting app on their phones).

There is already a free way to do it.

Apple has specifically said that they created an Android version of iMessage but ultimately decided that it was better for their business to not release it. There already is a new standard called RCS and Google has been pushing Apple to adopt it as well. Tim Cook’s response was to encourage your friends and family to switch to an iPhone. iMessage has many of the features that RCS has but unfortunately they’re not cross compatible.

Yes I know about that. Which is part of why I posted this. The problem is getting really bad. I don’t share my phone number with anybody but friends and family. I even have a google voice number set up for situations where a company requires me to give a phone number. The messages are coming from addresses that look like an email address. It’s purposely very long title so you can’t see the full address. You could block each one or forward each spam message to SPAM (7726) on your phone but every time I get a message it’s from an entirely different source and blocking isn’t going to stop the problem.

Blocking and reporting as spam does nothing when every new message is from a different sender. Trust me I follow all of the tips you mentioned. I don’t just put my number anywhere I even have a google voice set up for anything that isn’t friends or family . Even my doctors office gets routed to google voice. I truly hope you won’t ever see for yourself what I’m talking about. This problem is getting bigger by the day. It’s become a multi billion dollar industry. Scamming people.

These messages may be coming from an email > SMS gateway. For example, with T-Mobile you can send an email to [number]@tmomail.net and it'll be forwarded automatically via SMS/MMS to the specified 10-digit phone number.

With T-Mobile there is an option in the account settings to "Block TMOmail.net email." It's unclear whether this option works however - as there have been some reports claiming that it's broken. Other cellular providers may have a similar option.

It's the thing iOS fans dont want to accept. Android users get just as many spam messages sent to our phone numbers, but Google spam filtering is a lot better.

My wife's iphone from work is plagued with these messages. Neither of our personal Androids EVER see this garbage.

iPhone users are used to hearing about iMessage being the gold standard, but it's slipping. Apple likes breaking standards, because it makes OTHER products look inferior when they "don't just work" with iPhones. That means iOS users are going to increasingly pay more for "adequate".

I got these texts as well is this a scam?

The messages listed are e-mails sent to your [SMS] number. Whether an e-mail can be sent to your SMS number has nothing to do with Apple or Google, but whether your carrier has opened up that gateway. Many carriers have it shut down. Especially outside the US.

I use iOS and I rarely if ever see those spam text messages, same with my wife. However we also use third party apps to cut down the phone and text message spam, and they do help quite a lot.

As Tainted said above, Android and iOS users both get these spam texts so it doesn’t matter which operating system or text messaging service you use, iMessage, RCS, SMS, WhatsApp, etc., they all get spam.

If you’re getting that much spam then you need to see where you’ve shared your phone number. Is it part of your email signature? Your cellular carrier can share it unless you tell them not too in your account settings, same with your ISP and Amazon. Google DOES and WILL sell your phone number unless you specifically tell them not to in your Google, Gmail, and Android settings. Were any of the businesses or stores you deal with part of a data breach? That’s another way spammers get your phone number and email address. Did you click on a link in a email or text that you later found suspicious?

Did you put your phone number on Facebook, Messenger, or Instagram? If so you’re screwed. Take it off ASAP.

Per Krebs and other cybersecurity experts, if you’re getting more than 3 spam text messages a week than your phone number was sold or shared without your permission, is part of your email signature, or part of a data breach. Per those same experts, only way to stop them is to keep blocking them on your phone and reporting them, or change your phone number.

Also per Krebs and the US Department of Homeland Security and the FCC, RCS is currently the number one target of SMS scammers, and relies entirely on filters used by individual cellular carriers for protection; with even Google admitting RCS is a spam sieve. Ok I’m

Oh, you and your cellular carrier are ultimately responsible for blocking spam text messages, not Apple or Google.

There are so many ways for spammers to get your personal information that have NOTHING to do with Apple, iMessage, or RCS, so stop blaming them for it.

You know Apple doesn’t read Reddit right

Also, sms isn’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future. Advances in spam detection have been getting better, but so have the scam artists.