Phone companies ordered to block spam texts

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - It’s an issue that many people with cell phones have to deal with.

Have you ever gotten unwanted spam texts? Well, you may be in luck if you answered yes.

Officials are cracking down on obnoxious spam text messages. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is laying out new rules for telecom companies to put an end to unwanted robotexts.

According to FCC officials, the rules would require phone providers to block text messages from suspicious sources including phone numbers that appear to be “invalid, unallocated or unused.”

“It’s really difficult to enforce it effectively and to get everybody on the same page because of technical challenges but also because you don’t want to be stopping legitimate communications,” officials say.

Authorities say that scam robotexts may potentially be even more dangerous than robocalls because the texts may “contain malicious links to software that could infect your phone.”

FCC officials are also considering applying do not call registry protections to text messages.

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