7 ms·

It kinda depends on which platform handles their bulk messages. For example, if they are messaging you through Twilio, replying with "STOP" will cause Twilio it

It kinda depends on which platform handles their bulk messages. For example, if they are messaging you through Twilio, replying with "STOP" will cause Twilio itself to opt you out of messages (https://help.twilio.com/articles/223134027-Twilio-support-for-opt-out-keywords-SMS-STOP-filtering https://help.twilio.com/articles/223134027-Twilio-support-fo...), and the sender can't disable that (https://help.twilio.com/articles/360034798533-Getting-Started-with-Advanced-Opt-Out-for-Messaging-Services https://help.twilio.com/articles/360034798533-Getting-Starte...). It's kinda like how Mailchimp handles unsubscriptions for recipients, no matter what the sender wants. However, if they're using some other carrier or rolling their own VOIP setup, etc., or sending from a toll-free number instead of a shortcode, there's no guarantee that their particular platform will honor STOP. And there's no way for you, as a recipient, to know which is which. Generally I will reply STOP if it's something I know I signed up for but no longer want. Things I never signed up for just get reported as spam and I don't reply.

tomasreimers 2y ago
You can check if a number is using Twilio via a special number: https://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/lookup-phone-carrier-records-sms-voice#:~:text=Text%20%2B1%20(855)%20747,it%20is%20served%20from%20Twilio https://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/lookup-phone-carrier-recor....
- blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
  Or a site like https://www.freecarrierlookup.com/ https://www.freecarrierlookup.com/ which works for every number
  - yakovsi 2y ago
    Twilio has a concept of "hosting a number", meaning, the original carrier retains the number, only SMS is handled by Twilio. So parent's link will be more accurate for this application.
mikesabat 2y ago
Speaking mostly for the US here. The STOP keyword is mandated as unsubscribe at the carrier level (Verizon, ATT, TMo) not just the vendor level. So if you reply STOP, it's very likely that you will not receive another message from that number. This will be true for any programmatic SMS vendor. There could be smaller scale & more manual approaches, but that would be rare. There has been a big effort in the last year+ to clean up the space and require consent before any SMS is sent. FWIW, somewhat surprisingly, my google pixel has an amazing spam filter for SMS and I rarely get SMS that I don't want. What I want to know is, what's the purpose of those random texts that just say something like, "How's it been?" from a number that I've never communicated with? What's the angle there? Anyone know?
- solardev 2y ago
  > What I want to know is, what's the purpose of those random texts that just say something like, "How's it been?" from a number that I've never communicated with? What's the angle there? Anyone know? My understanding is that they will pretend it's a wrong number, but then make a joke or talk about some innocuous hobby and try to build up trust over weeks/months to eventually phish or scam you. I forget where I read it (maybe reddit?) but there was a poster who mentioned a personal experience with one such scam, basically a fake romance scam that led to them losing tens of thousands of dollars wiring money to a fake person who pretended to have fallen in love with them over weeks of back and forth texting. It doesn't have to work on everyone to be profitable, just the once-in-a-while lonely pensioner! https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2024/05/why-its-not-rude-ignore-hi-how-are-you-text-messages-strangers https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2024/05/why-its-not... https://www.robokiller.com/blog/how-to-identify-text-scams https://www.robokiller.com/blog/how-to-identify-text-scams
  - mikesabat 2y ago
    Thanks... that seems really labor intensive.
    - solardev 2y ago
      Labor is dirt cheap in some parts of the world, especially compared to the tens of thousands of dollars American retirees might have access to!
joecool1029 2y ago
Twilio is sort of a dream for spammers, they'll just make new accounts on it and spam campaigns on those new accounts. Political organizations do it all the time, if you get on a list you're never getting off. Lookup the numbers sending to you (Twilio's own lookup tool works great for this) and it almost always comes back Twilio/Zipwhip. I only recommend responding STOP to short codes since there's more investment and vetting on getting a short code. Carriers will intercept the request for TFN/local numbers sometimes but I don't really trust it. These numbers are all going to be spammers buying pools of numbers to churn and burn. They'll just import their list into a new account if it unsubs. Oh and btw, it's actually easier now as a spammer to tell when numbers get burned. A few years back when the CTIA handover on regs happened (and sending costs went up) the carriers finally started to respond with the delivery status of the sent messages. Before this they didn't respond and you only knew your provider delivered the messages to the carrier, not whether the carrier delivered them to the handset.
- danielhughes 2y ago
  I think Twilio requires its customers to go through the process of registering with the CTIA before allowing use of the SMS API. I abandoned a project because the process was too burdensome. Political campaigns are exempt though.
  - solardev 2y ago
    Is that new? I tried it out for fun once and it only took a few minutes and I don't recall any major hoops. I think it's different if you're applying for a shortcode vs a regular or toll free number though. There are different regulations governing all of those.
    - joecool1029 2y ago
      There's only hoops to jump through if you want higher send rates from a number. The CTIA figured out a new cash grab was registering businesses as legit senders on TFA's but it doesn't promise delivery, just gets you a nice logo/name on SMS apps. Having been on the purchasing end for wholesale marketing SMS I can tell you most of sales people will suggest the 'correct' way and happily sell things that let you do it the 'wrong' way.
ZachSaucier 2y ago
Unsubscribing from one Mailchimp subscription doesn't remove you from any other subscriptions...
- solardev 2y ago
  STOP doesn't either.
njovin 2y ago
Twilio actually does allow companies to opt out of the automatic STOP handling (I've done it while working on a txt automation system). There is a tiny bit of vetting involved and you've got to be a slightly larger account, but it is possible, so it's not safe to assume that if the message is coming from Twilio that STOP will block them at the platform level.
sambf 2y ago
Worked for a company that offers marketing & transactional SMSes: our SMS provider relayed the STOPs and we were obligated to honor it, but the provider couldn't check it. Also, the provider relayed the STOP to the last of their client that reached the number, they had no way to trace it back with 100% confidence.

tomasreimers 2y ago

You can check if a number is using Twilio via a special number: https://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/lookup-phone-carrier-records-sms-voice#:~:text=Text%20%2B1%20(855)%20747,it%20is%20served%20from%20Twilio https://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/lookup-phone-carrier-recor....

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
Or a site like https://www.freecarrierlookup.com/ https://www.freecarrierlookup.com/ which works for every number
- yakovsi 2y ago
  Twilio has a concept of "hosting a number", meaning, the original carrier retains the number, only SMS is handled by Twilio. So parent's link will be more accurate for this application.

mikesabat 2y ago

Speaking mostly for the US here. The STOP keyword is mandated as unsubscribe at the carrier level (Verizon, ATT, TMo) not just the vendor level. So if you reply STOP, it's very likely that you will not receive another message from that number. This will be true for any programmatic SMS vendor. There could be smaller scale & more manual approaches, but that would be rare. There has been a big effort in the last year+ to clean up the space and require consent before any SMS is sent. FWIW, somewhat surprisingly, my google pixel has an amazing spam filter for SMS and I rarely get SMS that I don't want. What I want to know is, what's the purpose of those random texts that just say something like, "How's it been?" from a number that I've never communicated with? What's the angle there? Anyone know?

solardev 2y ago
> What I want to know is, what's the purpose of those random texts that just say something like, "How's it been?" from a number that I've never communicated with? What's the angle there? Anyone know? My understanding is that they will pretend it's a wrong number, but then make a joke or talk about some innocuous hobby and try to build up trust over weeks/months to eventually phish or scam you. I forget where I read it (maybe reddit?) but there was a poster who mentioned a personal experience with one such scam, basically a fake romance scam that led to them losing tens of thousands of dollars wiring money to a fake person who pretended to have fallen in love with them over weeks of back and forth texting. It doesn't have to work on everyone to be profitable, just the once-in-a-while lonely pensioner! https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2024/05/why-its-not-rude-ignore-hi-how-are-you-text-messages-strangers https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2024/05/why-its-not... https://www.robokiller.com/blog/how-to-identify-text-scams https://www.robokiller.com/blog/how-to-identify-text-scams
- mikesabat 2y ago
  Thanks... that seems really labor intensive.
  - solardev 2y ago
    Labor is dirt cheap in some parts of the world, especially compared to the tens of thousands of dollars American retirees might have access to!

joecool1029 2y ago

Twilio is sort of a dream for spammers, they'll just make new accounts on it and spam campaigns on those new accounts. Political organizations do it all the time, if you get on a list you're never getting off. Lookup the numbers sending to you (Twilio's own lookup tool works great for this) and it almost always comes back Twilio/Zipwhip. I only recommend responding STOP to short codes since there's more investment and vetting on getting a short code. Carriers will intercept the request for TFN/local numbers sometimes but I don't really trust it. These numbers are all going to be spammers buying pools of numbers to churn and burn. They'll just import their list into a new account if it unsubs. Oh and btw, it's actually easier now as a spammer to tell when numbers get burned. A few years back when the CTIA handover on regs happened (and sending costs went up) the carriers finally started to respond with the delivery status of the sent messages. Before this they didn't respond and you only knew your provider delivered the messages to the carrier, not whether the carrier delivered them to the handset.

danielhughes 2y ago
I think Twilio requires its customers to go through the process of registering with the CTIA before allowing use of the SMS API. I abandoned a project because the process was too burdensome. Political campaigns are exempt though.
- solardev 2y ago
  Is that new? I tried it out for fun once and it only took a few minutes and I don't recall any major hoops. I think it's different if you're applying for a shortcode vs a regular or toll free number though. There are different regulations governing all of those.
  - joecool1029 2y ago
    There's only hoops to jump through if you want higher send rates from a number. The CTIA figured out a new cash grab was registering businesses as legit senders on TFA's but it doesn't promise delivery, just gets you a nice logo/name on SMS apps. Having been on the purchasing end for wholesale marketing SMS I can tell you most of sales people will suggest the 'correct' way and happily sell things that let you do it the 'wrong' way.

ZachSaucier 2y ago

Unsubscribing from one Mailchimp subscription doesn't remove you from any other subscriptions...

solardev 2y ago
STOP doesn't either.

njovin 2y ago

Twilio actually does allow companies to opt out of the automatic STOP handling (I've done it while working on a txt automation system). There is a tiny bit of vetting involved and you've got to be a slightly larger account, but it is possible, so it's not safe to assume that if the message is coming from Twilio that STOP will block them at the platform level.

sambf 2y ago

Worked for a company that offers marketing & transactional SMSes: our SMS provider relayed the STOPs and we were obligated to honor it, but the provider couldn't check it. Also, the provider relayed the STOP to the last of their client that reached the number, they had no way to trace it back with 100% confidence.