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Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

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Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#61

Post by nostromo »

left-struck wrote: post #29
sseagull wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been interested in donating before, but this is actually the main thing holding me back. I get so little spam and unwanted messages (email and text), and I am trying extremely hard to keep it that way. So thanks for validating my decision :)

Use a email alias service like simple login, duck duck go’s private duck address etc You can disable that email alias and never receive emails sent to that address again I wish we had something similar for phone numbers

This is in no way enough to prevent election spam.

You have to give your name and address as a public record, and they will likely find your phone number and email and will call, text, and spam you from there.

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#62

Post by DidYaWipe »

mikesabat wrote: post #17
solardev wrote: post #3

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-fo... ), and the sender can't disable that ( https://help.twilio.com/articles/360034798533-Getting-Starte... ). It's kinda like how Mailchimp handles unsubscriptions fo…

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+…

Tell that to Rite-Aid. These jagoffs spam the crap out of people, even after you say STOP as they instruct: https://imgur.com/gallery/if-youre-too-dumb-to-follow-own-in...

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#63

Post by solardev »

oasisbob wrote: post #58
solardev wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your campaign donations are a matter of public record and Actblue harvests them and repackages them to sell to political campaigns and operatives. It's a shitty business model that preys upon an unfortunate part of federal law that most donors don't know about.

Everyone shares lists. I have a politics label in gmail that is blue/red from 2012 onwards. All the GOP emails are from poking around Romney 2012, and nothing else. I'd say you'd be surprised on the reuse, but you shouldn't be.

It's not just the re-use and sharing of lists, but also the incredible Facebook-style targeting available to anyone for spamming. Anyone can sign up for something like ActionNetwork.org or NationBuilder and send out an email blast to registered voters in a particular zip code. NGP VAN is even more powerful.

The whole industry is mature and super targeted like any other spammer, but mostly immune to spam regulations (because politics are specifically exempt from CAN-SPAM etc., and most voter registration and donation data is public record). The whole pipeline is thoroughly automated and you're marketed and remarketed to just like you are with Google or Amazon, but without any of the already-minimal consumer and privacy protections.

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#65

Post by ykonstant »

I have a related question regarding snail mail: when I lived in the US, Utah in particular, I used to get tons and tons of ad leaflets on my mail; so much that it was hard just sorting out the trash (and not throwing a bill away, which I did twice). Is there a way to tell the postal service to stop this? The volume was insane.

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#66

Post by radicality »

DidYaWipe wrote: post #62
mikesabat wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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+…

Tell that to Rite-Aid. These jagoffs spam the crap out of people, even after you say STOP as they instruct: https://imgur.com/gallery/if-youre-too-dumb-to-follow-own-in...

Isn’t it case sensitive? At least I always assumed it was.

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#67

Post by radicality »

blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #41
StanislavPetrov wrote: post #37

I never respond to any unsolicited message or call. If enough people block them and mark them as spam eventually the algorithm will mark them as spam and stop sending them out all together.

You can’t mark them as spam easily. The phones don’t have built in features for that. You have to go through a bunch of manual steps that Apple and Google should really make a one click process. See my other comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41704119

What does the “Report Junk” button do then on iOS in Messages app? I use that for unknown spam sms, and was under the impression that it sends it to Apple and/or my carrier for processing / feeding some ML classification funnnel.

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#68

Post by locallost »

mikesabat wrote: post #17
solardev wrote: post #3

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-fo... ), and the sender can't disable that ( https://help.twilio.com/articles/360034798533-Getting-Starte... ). It's kinda like how Mailchimp handles unsubscriptions fo…

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+…

Yes, can confirm about the Pixel. I occasionally check my spam folder and it's always just spam, which I otherwise never get. So either no or rarely false positives or negatives.

Also on a side note, the scams are really horrific. Although obviously scams I can imagine especially the older people getting tricked with "hello grandad here's my new number". Makes me wonder what I'll be getting tricked with when I am old.

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#69

Post by jonathanstrange »

A Golden Rule of the internet says that you should never reply to unwanted texts on any medium:

- stalkers and trolls live off reactions, both positive and negative ones

- spammers will use your reply to verify there's a human at the other side

- colleagues and friends will hate you because everybody thinks they're important

Replying only has negative effects. Use client-side filtering, kill files, blocking functions, or ignore the text - whichever fits best.

Re: Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?

#70

Post by patrickmcnamara »

radicality wrote: post #66
DidYaWipe wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell that to Rite-Aid. These jagoffs spam the crap out of people, even after you say STOP as they instruct: https://imgur.com/gallery/if-youre-too-dumb-to-follow-own-in...

Isn’t it case sensitive? At least I always assumed it was.

For short codes in the USA, it technically does not have to be. And in fact businesses have to regularly check for requests even like "please don't send me messages" to be compliant.
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