mystery text messages: "to download, press get"

[caller]

My feature phone keeps receiving text messages from 473-5.  There is never a subject line.  All they say is "To download, press Get". 

Out of nowhere, I started receiving one to four or five of these every single day.  As you can imagine, this is annoying.

What are they?  What do they mean? 

[caller]

Ok, here is an example "screenshot" of a mystery text on my phone.  Note the time that this arrived.  Is this from Fido, or somebody else?  What is it?  Thank you in advance for not trying to sell me a different phone.

 

[FidoAnthonyZ]

Hello @caller,

Have you missed any calls from us lately? 

You can try replying STOP to these messages.

[caller]

Thank you.  Not sure what you mean by "missed any calls".  But I'm going to respond with: no.  I don't believe that any Fido representatives have ever tried phoning me.  If they did, they never left a voicemail.   

It was quite difficult to reply to this mystery text message.  My phone did not perceive it as something that could be replied to.  When I look at the message info, it reads "Type: Multimedia Noti Message".  Instead, I created a new address book entry for "473-5" and simply sent them a text that read "STOP". 

Soon enough, I received a reply from "FIDO" that read "You will be opted out within 10 business days". 

If I don't receive any more of these messages in the next 10 days, I'll close this thread.  Until then, let us keep it open.  Thank you again. 

[FidoAnthonyZ]

Sounds good, let us know. 

[caller]

Looks like these messages are now gone.  But could you please tell me, what werre they? 

Was it spam/advertising?  Or, were they system messages informing me of important account info? 

thanks. 

[FidoSaad · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the update @caller

The contents of the message aren't available so we can't confirm at 100%. That said, since it included downloadable content, it's an MMS (text message with multimédia). To view the content would require your phone to have the correct APN settings for the MMS and to have your mobile data enabled.

We do send marketing offers to our customers by text messages, and replying STOP would indicate that you want to opt out of these communications.

The good news is that you can also access your Fido.ca profile or email to view these offers as well. Hope this clarifies

[caller]

Given that I have a voice only plan, I'm not sure why Fido would send that to me.  In any event, thanks for all of your help. 

[FidoPhilippe]

Hey @caller! Philippe here. I hope you're doing well.

To help us with that, can you send a screenshot of the message in question please (making sure your private information is hidden)?

Thanks!