Dodgy texts are a problem for any phone owner, but they’re a waste of resources for a telco. Fortunately, that’s being looked into, as Telstra works on dealing with these digital nuisances.
If you’re anything like us, there’s a good chance you’re sick and tired of dodgy SMS popping up on your phone asking you to click on a link to take you to a fake website.
You know the drill, with scam SMS ranging from fake bank texts to fraudulent delivery notifications, and even the odd competition win a prize message. Australian phone owners have seen them all, and we’re still getting them, though there’s positive news on the horizon if you’re a subscriber to Telstra, or even one of the subscribers to an operator that uses the Telstra network.
Much like how Telstra’s Cleaner Pipes program works to clean up its network of dodgy call scams, the telco has this week chimed in to point out just how many text scams are being removed from its network, with over two million blocked daily and over 60 million per month.
Back in April, Telstra started testing an SMS filter technology to do just that, using a technology that had the potential to learn and be trained on what you expect. When it was switched on three months ago, it was blocking around 1.8 million texts per day, with the numbers pushed to a little over 2 million now, showing that it’s improving and working.
It’s not entirely foolproof, that said, and if you still get some texts pop up, Telstra notes that you can send it an email to report the scam, which should hopefully train its service some more.
Worth noting, however, is that Telstra’s scam blocking system does apply to the likes of Boost Mobile, Belong, Woolworths Mobile, and Mate, as these are all Mobile Virtual Network Operators that rely on the Telstra network. However, if you’re with either Optus, Vodafone, or a virtual operator that uses those networks, the same text blocking tech won’t likely be there for you, at least until those telcos step up and make their own scam blocking plans.
