Is 7726 still a thing to report spam sms?

[Alain31]

Hi, 

I recently started to receive many spam sms each day. Blocking caller ID does not work since they are spoofing ID each time they send a new spam text. I tried to block aera code used from the spammer but now they are using different aera code too. White listing numbers from my contacts list is not an option because of my job (often in contact with new ppl). Now im trying to report the spams to 7726 so Fido can hopefully block these texts but everytime I fwd a text to 7726 I get a notification that it failed to send. The sms are only text with fraudulent links, no MMS. What am I doing wrong? Im using a samsung S9. Thanks! 

[Cawtau · Accepted solution]

Hello Alain31,

  Happy New Year and Welcome to the Community!

  As also mentioned below, as far as I am aware, forwarding SPAM to 7726 is still operational. In fact, I just forwarded a couple messages the other day. I'm not sure why it is not working for you.

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@Alain31 wrote:..The sms are only text with fraudulent links, no MMS. ..

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   I understand that the message might appear to only contain text. However, are you aware that MMS isn't limited to picture or video messages? For example, the inclusion of a Subject header (similar to email) will be considered MMS as well (even if the header is left 'blank'). Is it possible there is a blank subject header in the message you're trying to forward? If this is the case, in order to be able to forward the message to 7726, you would need to first remove the Subject header prior to sending the message.

Unfortunately, it seems as though the spammers/scammers have caught on to message reporting as most of the SPAM messages I now receive are MMS as well. Removing the header will allow the rest of the message to be forwarded as SMS.

Hope this helps 😀

Cheers

[Alain31]

Im also womdering how sending spam to 7726 help preventing spam on the network. I reported a lot of them already, and noticed no improvement. The spam are almost identical, always starts with "Hey Mario! Get your cash reward here!" with a different link each time. Is there some kind of AI trying to intercept these messages on the network based on the reports we sent? Just hope im not waiting my time reporting all these messages everyday... I mean just looking at the preview of these message for a fraction of a second is enough for human to understand its spam, how can an advanced telecom network cant understand it and intercept the spams? 

[Cawtau]

Hello again,

  Glad you were able to eventually forward the messages. I don't know for sure how the SPAM filter works. However, I imagine it would attempt to identify certain key elements which might make the messages unique. The system wouldn't be able to block general words as it could also block people's actual messages. The key elements in the SPAM messages would likely be within the link. That's why the link seems to always change. Once the old ones get blocked, the spammers/scammers generate a new one to get around the filter. As previously mentioned, I also think that's why they started to send MMS rather than SMS.

  Depending on the message, the filter might also be able to identify obvious fraudulent words (ie F1do).

  I don't think you're wasting your time by reporting the messages. However, as with most dishonest attempts to SCAM people, once one avenue gets blocked, they'll come up with another.

Hope this helps 😀

Cheers

[Alain31]

I was not aware of the header making simple text message a MMS and that was indeed what was preventing me to forward the massage to 7726. Copy/paste the text only to 7726 works fine. Thank you! 

[Original_Lucy]

Good morning @Alain31 , yes, as far as I know the spam number is still 7726. As you said correctly that you long press on the spam message and then forward to fido spam at 7726. Once sent a message comes back saying thank you for reporting spam, we'll take it from here. I'm not sure why this isn't working for you. You may have to contact tech support to have that looked at. Here  are a few ways to contact. You may want to send a Twitter message and have them get back to you. Thanks for mentioning this,  I'll keep an eye out when I get my next spam message. Cheers