The upcoming iOS 16 will help battle the growing problem of spam text messages. The latest beta includes the ability to report SMS messages as “junk” to the user’s wireless carrier.
iPhone users already can report spam messages that come through Apple’s own iMessage service.
Your iPhone’s Mail app is pretty good. It does most of what you need, and you can be sure that it doesn’t steal your email password, or send details from your incoming mail to Apple. There are even a bunch of very powerful smart folders and features hidden in its sidebar. But getting basic stuff done is sometimes awkward, thanks to Apple’s insistence on hiding everything in the name of minimalism.
That includes marking an email as spam. It’s actually easy, but you might not know how to do it. Today we’ll look at three ways to mark email as junk mail.
The trouble with modern technology is that anyone can try to reach you, at any time. Your boss can leave a passive aggressive email at the top of your inbox overnight, so you see it when you want to check personal mail. Anyone can send you an SMS or iMessage. And anyone with your phone number can spam you, any time.
Currently in iOS, you can block iMessage senders. But in iOS 13, you gain two new ways to keep stalkers, weird friends and over-sharing co-workers out of your digital life. Now you can block unknown phone callers and email senders.
On a podcast this week, I heard the hosts complaining that they get all kinds of spam notifications from Apple. Their iPhones pop up promotional alerts about Apple Pay, apps, Apple Music, Apple Pay, podcasts and more.
“WTF?” I thought, because I don’t get anything like that. I checked through my notification preferences, sure that I’d find something in there, but no. So why wasn’t I getting all this Apple spam?
Because Apple hid the setting. You can turn off all those junky Apple spam notifications. You just have to know where to look.
AT&T and T-Mobile today confirmed an unlikely partnership for a wonderful cause. The rival carriers are joining forces to fight robocalls and scammers.
Both will deliver the FCC-recommended STIR/SHAKEN standards to digitally validate calls across their networks. It will make it easier for customers to filter out unwanted calls.
Twitter has reduced its limit on the number of people you can follow in one day in an effort to crack down on spammers.
The new limit, which is 400, is designed to prevent new accounts from following a large number of people and then removing them in a “bulk aggressive or indiscriminate manner.”
Apple has started removing duplicate VoIP apps from the App Store.
The purge comes after a report highlighted a shady practice some developers have been using to game App Store search results. Plenty of clones still remain in other categories, however.
iPhone users in China are reportedly being bombarded with iMessage spam, many of them promoting illegal gambling.
Much of the iMessage spam in question links to WeChat account or gambling websites. Gambling is illegal in China, with the exception of two state-sanctioned lotteries.
WhatsApp has begun testing a new feature that warns users when they receive a suspected hoax message. It should help users avoid common spam that may seem genuine at first glance.
As the weather warms up, we’re still rounding up the hottest new deals at the Cult of Mac Store. This go-round, we’ve got a set of future-ready wireless earbuds, a swiss army knife for iOS data, a full terabyte of super secure cloud storage, and a tool that’ll help you finally reach the bottom of your inbox. Best of all, everything is discounted by more than 60 percent. Read on for more details:
Instagram is finally clamping down on fake accounts that aren’t controlled by real users.
Instagress, a service that helped Instagram users gain additional followers for a fee, has been forced to shutdown as a result of the crackdown.
Apple has added a new Calendar spam reporting feature to iCloud.com, allowing users to flag bogus invitations with ease. The feature comes after some iCloud users started being hit by a bombardment of spam last month.
CloudMagic, the best third-party email client for mobile, just got even better thanks to a major new update that’s available right now on Android and iOS. In addition to adding quick filters for things like unread and starred messages, the release brings customizable alert tones, account nicknames, access to spam folders, and lots more.
After coming under fire over the holidays for being the victim of a massive hack that leaked phone numbers and Snapchat usernames of over 4.6million of its users, Snapchat is back in the hot seat as many of its users are complaining of a being suddenly assaulted by Snap Spam.
Snapchat has been quick to put out the flames by publishing an open letter on its blog, claiming that the wave of spam is totally unrelated to the holiday hack that exposed users’ info. Instead, Snapchat blames the Snap Spam on the rising popularity of the service.
Here’s the full apology:
Sick of getting spam in your iCloud email? You’re not the only one. Apple’s sick of it too, and they’re making a hiring push to get spam and abuse under control in the iCloud.
Do you get frustrating iMessage spam from people you’ve never met, or companies you’ve never heard of? You’re not the only one. Until now, you could either make friends with them and save yourself from loneliness on those cold winter nights, or you could ignore them and hope that they don’t text again.
But now you can report them to Apple, too.
I don’t know about you, but I spend a lot of time deleting spam messages from my inbox — despite using a junk mail filter. But the issue is about to get a whole lot worse, with Google gearing up to deliver adverts to our Gmail inboxes. The messages will appear under the new Promotions tab that was recently introduced in a Gmail update, and Google is testing them on a small number of users now.
Phishing emails are some of the most frustrating emails I have delivered to my inbox. While I’ve never fallen for one, the sheer audacity of the sender, who makes a lame and shameless attempt to steal my login and/or bank details (often using the name of a bank I’ve never dealt with in my life) really infuriates me.
There seems to be one going around at the moment that claims to be from Apple targeting iCloud customers. Unlike traditional spam emails, however, this one won’t attempt to steal your login details when you click on its link. Instead, it wants to sell you flowers.
SpamSieve is a top-quality spam-killer for your email account, protecting you from phishing, from lures tempting you to download God-knows-what from dodgy file sharing servers, and from non-existent Nigerian princes offering untold wealth in exchange for, well, a few cash payments up front. To cover expenses, you understand.
Earlier today, we reported that Apple is invisibly filtering certain outgoing messages sent through their MobileMe email service.
Apple has now responded to that story, and while they admit that there is some level of filtering going on with MobileMe’s email service in order to protect users from spam, they are not censoring emails based upon political content.
