I have started to receive text message spam on my iPhone and I’m very unhappy about it. So I looked into what I could do to stop it and I came across a 2008 article by David Pogue on his New York Times blog. He outlines the ways in which you can stop much of this spam, especially if you have an iPhone.  He points out the “presence of an astonishing little-known cellular feature: you can block cellular spam.”  A great deal of cellular spam originates as an email from the internet using…  [your 10-digit wireless number]@txt.att.net.

To stop much of this spam on AT&T accounts, he states: “Log in at mymessages.wireless.att.com. Under Preferences, you’ll see the text-blocking and alias options. Here’s also where you can block messages from specific e-mail addresses or Web sites.”

For Verizon Wireless accounts: “Log in at vtext.com. Under Text Messaging, click Preferences. Click Text Blocking. You’re offered choices to block text messages from e-mail or from the Web. Here again, you can block specific addresses or Web sites. (Here’s where you set up your aliases, too.)”

In 2008, when he wrote this article, Sprint and T-Mobile were not offering a way to do this, but, if you have an account with one of these services, check their current website to see if they have added it.