Spam texts

[Phoniac]

I'm getting quite a few spam texts on my Textnow phone. The weird part is that the texts show up in the native text messaging app, not the Textnow app.

How is that even possible?

The native text messaging app doesn't have a phone number attached to it, from what I understand of Textnow - Textnow is voip, so the number that shows up in "My Device" in Settings is some weird number, not my Textnow phone number. So technically, the native text messaging app doesn't have a phone number, and yet I get all these spam texts in the native app.

I am baffled. Would any of you know anything about this?

[mmfacemm]

Are you on the sprint free plan or the just voip plan?

The sprint free plan has a number hidden behind. You can see it in your settings on android.

[Phoniac]

@mmfacemm

Are you on the sprint free plan or the just voip plan?

The sprint free plan has a number hidden behind. You can see it in your settings on android.

Yeah, I see the number in my Settings (and it's different from my Textnow free plan phone number). But how are spammers able to get that hidden number and spam my native text messaging app?

[johnsmith]

@Phoniac

@mmfacemm

Are you on the sprint free plan or the just voip plan?

The sprint free plan has a number hidden behind. You can see it in your settings on android.

Yeah, I see the number in my Settings (and it's different from my Textnow free plan phone number). But how are spammers able to get that hidden number and spam my native text messaging app?

They don't necessarily know your number. The spammers "dial" sequentially to hit every possible number in an area code or region.

[KentE]

I know about the hidden number-- but it's still strange. Sprint's system requires all active lines to have a number, even if the line isn't provisioned for voice/text. The question isn't just how did spammers get the number, but why is the TextNow line provisioned for cellular/native text anyway? I thought this was something that had to be enabled by Sprint, just like voice service. It's been a while since I had FreedomPop/Sprint, but I don't remember ever getting a spam text there.

[mmfacemm]

Numbers often come with history. Probably was spammed before textnow took it over/assigned it and it just carried on getting spam. I tried texting my hidden number but it didn't work. Have you tried texting this hidden number?

[KentE]

@Phoniac

@mmfacemm

Are you on the sprint free plan or the just voip plan?

The sprint free plan has a number hidden behind. You can see it in your settings on android.

Yeah, I see the number in my Settings (and it's different from my Textnow free plan phone number). But how are spammers able to get that hidden number and spam my native text messaging app?

Any chance you have Google Voice set up on this phone?

[realLexusl21]

Gv. Has a spam blocker. Automatically does most spam. 95% imho. The few that get in. You can manually block and add to spam list

[Phoniac]

@KentE

I know about the hidden number-- but it's still strange. Sprint's system requires all active lines to have a number, even if the line isn't provisioned for voice/text. The question isn't just how did spammers get the number, but why is the TextNow line provisioned for cellular/native text anyway? I thought this was something that had to be enabled by Sprint, just like voice service. It's been a while since I had FreedomPop/Sprint, but I don't remember ever getting a spam text there.

That is what perplexes me. The involvement of the native texting app is what baffles me.

Re your question in the later post - No, I don't have Google Voice on the phone.

To add more mystery, the recent spam texts seem to be MMS messages. The native texting app says "No subject. Message size 192KB. Expires: 8:45 AM Mar 24". The notification says that the message could not be downloaded.

I keep deleting the texts and they keep coming back in my native texting app. My actual Textnow number doesn't get any spam texts (knock on wood!) as of right now.