How to block spam messages on Android (and why you really should)

I don’t know about you, but the amount of spam and possibly malicious SMS messages I receive these days is overwhelming. I have, on certain days, received anywhere from 20 to 50 such text messages on my Android phone. Although stopping this altogether is next to impossible, you can at least block and report any of those messages that do come in.

This can be a time-consuming effort when your phone number falls prey to a deluge of spam, so why would you bother with this? First and foremost, some of those attempts are not just spam, but malicious attempts to compromise your device. Should you tap on a malicious link in a message, you could fall victim to ransomware, which could encrypt your data. Once that happens, you might not be able to retrieve that data until you pay the ransom. 

Also: How to stop spam texts on your iPhone in 3 easy steps

You don’t want that.

According to Cloudwards, ransomware demands rose by 50% in 2023. Another report from Cleafy notes, “We have seen that 90% of fraud attempts are still conducted via Account Takeover, and our forecasts expect this number to stay flat in 2024.” On-device fraud — fraudulent activities conducted on a user’s device, without having to first take over a victim’s account from a second device — points directly to attacks that target apps like Google Messages.

To that end, it’s important to block and report those messages — not simply to protect yourself, but to protect others from falling prey to the same attempt from the same number.

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So, how do you mark and block such SMS messages that come into your Android device? It’s very easy to do. Let’s walk through the process.

How to block spam messages on Android

What you’ll need: The only things you’ll need for this are an updated Android device and an SMS message to block. Be careful about reporting and blocking these messages. Only block those messages you truly suspect to be malicious. (Are you running Android 14? Scroll down for an alternative method.)

Now, let’s mark those messages as spam and block them.

Marking and blocking messages

1. Locate a suspicious message

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Open the Google Messages app and scroll through your messages to locate the message in question.

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2. Mark the message as spam and block it

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Long-press that message, and you should see a new toolbar appear at the top of the app.

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Tap the octagon with the exclamation point and, when prompted, tap “Report spam.”

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You might see a different popup during the process, one that not only allows you to report the message but also block it.

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Viewing Spam messages

After tapping Report Spam, the message will be moved to the “Spam & blocked” folder in Messages. If you’ve accidentally reported a message, you can find it by tapping the three-dot menu or your profile icon at the top-right of the Messages app and then “Spam & blocked.”

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If you find a message has been accidentally blocked, tap it, and, in the resulting window, tap “Not spam.”

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Another method for Android 14

With a recent update to Android 14, the process has changed (at least on my Pixel 8 Pro) and isn’t quite as user-friendly. To block a message with the latest Android update, you long-press the message in question to select it and then tap the check directly to the left of the message. A new pop-up will appear. In that pop-up, tap the circled “i,” which will take you to information about the message, and let you block it and report it. Or, you can select the message, tap the three-dot menu button in the app, and then tap Block.

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That’s all there is to blocking and reporting SMS messages on Android. Use this feature wisely, and it can help protect you (to an extent) from malicious text messages.

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Source: Robotics - zdnet.com