Business Text MessagingWe all get them and most of us really hate them because they use up part of our monthly quota for text messaging. They are called Short Code Programs. For those of you who want to do something about this problem, we have the answer for you.  It is easy to stop receiving these messages. The short answer, no pun intended, to stop text message short code messages from being sent to your phone is to text the number that is sending you these messages and sent one of the following commands:

  • Quit
  • Stop
  • End
  • Cancel
  • Unsubscribe

By doing this you are telling whoever is sending these messages to you and driving up your monthly bill by sometimes $2.00 a message, to stop sending these messages. Usually that is all it takes. However we also recommend that you call your mobility company and advise them that you have been receiving these message and would like them blocked. They can also tell you which one of the above commands are appropriate for their network.

Call Your Mobility Provider

These text message short code program messages are a real pain. They are expensive, usually billed on a per message basis and you have no control over them at all in terms of what the content is and how many you receive. In my own case I did not even realize that I had signed up for or approved someone sending me these text messages. I noticed them on my bill at $2.00 a message and immediately called my mobile provider.

Once I explained to my provider that I had not initiated a request for these messages, they placed a stop order on this service and also gave me a rebate for the charges incurred  up to that point. I also set a “stop” message to the provider just to ensure that I did not accidentally get any more of these messages. What a pain and they are so expensive. $16 before I got it stopped and the messages were not even interesting.

Accidental Visit to a Website

Apparently I must have visited a web site to obtain some information and provided by cell phone number as a contact. They all have this request and they all have the page were you need to agree to the conditions expressed before you can proceed. Like most people I do not read these things and just blindly accept the conditions.

In this case I guess because I clicked on accept, it gave them the right to send these short code text messages and charge me for the privilege.  In the future I will not ever provide by cell phone number to anyone unless I really want them to contact me. This was just a scam and we really would like to make sure that as many people as possible are aware of this issue and also how to stop them once they start.

How to Block These Short Code Programs

If you are reading this post and have not yet received a text message of this sort, you can ask your provider to block them. So that there never will be an opportunity for you to receive these messages. Some companies require that you call them while others have a web presence that you can log onto. You can block these messages yourself. Check with yours if you are not sure. They can block these messages for you or provide instructions so that you can do it yourself.

For more information on dealing with short code programs, click here.

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