Blocking texts sent from email addresses

[Sojourner]

I've recently started getting a large number of vile spam texts from random email addresses (of the form: somepersonsname55@gmail.com), and I haven't been able to find a way to block all "email texts" like these. My phone is on iOS 13.5.1. I've searched extensively online for a method of blocking these texts, either through phone settings or 3rd party apps, without much luck.

Does anyone know of a way to block all texts sent from email addresses? Ideally, I'd like to be able to have a rule like this: Block all texts from email addresses that aren't in my contacts list. Is there an app that can do this? The texts are being sent via standard SMS, not iMessage.

[braumeister]

Have you tried this:

Settings
Messages
Message Filtering -- Unknown & Spam
Filter Unknown Senders

[cathy63]

If the iOS settings don't work, you can also try your phone service provider. I know Verizon lets you block all texts from email via your account settings page on their website. Other phone providers probably do too.

In Verizon's case, this would just mean that you wouldn't receive any text messages emailed to your-number@vtext.com, or if you have AT&T it would be your-number@txt.att.net. Probably nobody you care about even knows how to send you texts this way, so blocking them all is unlikely to be a problem.

[Sojourner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister Have you tried this: Settings Messages Message Filtering -- Unknown & Spam Filter Unknown Senders

Yes. This was the first thing that came up when I did a search for this issue, and I was surprised to find that I had already enabled the "Filter Unknown Senders" option at some point in the past. Apparently, this only works for iMessages, not SMS. Fairly bewildering, as it seems like it would be straightforward to simply have iOS check the sender for all texts, not just iMessages.

[braumeister]

If there is some common content in the SMS messages, you can selectively filter all that contain those words with a 3rd party app called WideProtect. I've been using it for years to filter both phone spam and messages, so it's reliable and very effective.

[Sojourner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cathy63 If the iOS settings don't work, you can also try your phone service provider. I know Verizon lets you block all texts from email via your account settings page on their website. Other phone providers probably do too. In Verizon's case, this would just mean that you wouldn't receive any text messages emailed to your-number@vtext.com, or if you have AT&T it would be your-number@txt.att.net. Probably nobody you care about even knows how to send you texts this way, so blocking them all is unlikely to be a problem.

Yes, if no one can point me to a 3rd party app that can block email texts, then I'll have to contact AT&T to set this up for my phone. Sigh. It would be really nice to not have to block all email texts, just the ones from unknown senders. Even a simple phone setting like "Block all calls and messages from phone numbers and emails not in your contacts" apparently is too much to expect from a ginormous technology company like Apple.

[Sojourner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister If there is some common content in the SMS messages, you can selectively filter all that contain those words with a 3rd party app called WideProtect. I've been using it for years to filter both phone spam and messages, so it's reliable and very effective.

Thanks, this looks like it just might do the trick!

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sojourner Thanks, this looks like it just might do the trick!

I hope so. You can thank fellow member T-Minus, who introduced me to it. It's especially flexible in how it lets you block phone spam, but works well on texts also.

[Sojourner]

Braumeister, can you confirm that WideProtect would allow me to block all texts from any sender addresses containing, say, gmail.com? I can't find any specifics about the detailed SMS blocking abilities of this app. The developer has posted a few screenshots on the App Store along with some details about how the app works, but not enough to cover my particular use case.

[braumeister]

No, I've never tried to use it that way.

I was getting spam texts that contained a few specific phrases, and I just blocked those. You should be able to experiment.

[Sojourner]

Ahh OK, thanks. Will check it out.

[eytonxav]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cathy63 If the iOS settings don't work, you can also try your phone service provider. I know Verizon lets you block all texts from email via your account settings page on their website. Other phone providers probably do too. In Verizon's case, this would just mean that you wouldn't receive any text messages emailed to your-number@vtext.com, or if you have AT&T it would be your-number@txt.att.net. Probably nobody you care about even knows how to send you texts this way, so blocking them all is unlikely to be a problem.

I did not know that existed on VZ's website. I've been blocking each individual message I get, but this would certainly be a good fix for me. TY

[big-papa]

Back in the day, AT&T had a special website you could log into to have them block text from email addresses at the source. I did this years ago and it stopped. Today, it looks like you can contact a rep and have them refer to article 446389, which describes to the rep what they need to do to enable this features. Perhaps the capability is on their website, too, if you log into your account.

https://forums.att.com/conversations...d5f2f606e8c5d2


Cheers.