You are overwhelmed every day by a string of spam by SMS or email. Unsolicited advertising messages are among the main evils that taint the digital experience. In this article, we explore all the possible solutions to get rid of unwanted messages for good.
Spams are still legion despite the legal provisions to frame promising messages. Some flaws allow companies to circumvent them. The Unsolicited text messages and emails are prohibited by article L.34-5 of the postal and electronic communications code, which nevertheless provides for an exception: the agreement of the prospect approached under the following conditions.
If the direct marketing concerns similar products or services provided by the same natural or legal person (company), and if the recipient is offered, in an express and unambiguous manner, the possibility of opposing, free of charge, except those related to the transmission of the refusal, and in a simple way, to the use of his contact details at the time they are collected and each time a prospecting e-mail is sent to him in the event that he would not have refused to immediately such exploitation.
A measure that remains fragile since many companies are careful not to be transparent. The Internet user quickly agrees because of a form option that is checked by default and not very visible. And even in this case, companies are required to offer an unsubscribe link in emails.
Free your inbox from spam
To do stop email spam, you have several options. As mentioned above, companies that send newsletters must provide an unsubscribe link. Something they don't all do. And when this is the case, it is sometimes with a lot of ambiguity. Or the link doesn't work. The first option, however, is to try a manual unsubscribe.
If, on the other hand, there are too many sources, there are solutions to help you clean up. This is the case of services Free your inbox, Unroll.me or even cleanfox. They all offer the same possibility. Scan your mailbox to offer you to unsubscribe from a set of newsletter sources in one click.
Once this is done, in the event of a recurrence by a sender, you can report the spam via the signal-spam.com site, which also offers modules for the various browsers in order to facilitate the process. You also have the option of entering the CNIL directly.
Spam by SMS and MMS
The Bloctel service of the government takes into account the opposition against cold calling, but not against SMS. The conditions under which companies are authorized to send them to prospects or customers are the same as those indicated above. Here too, the law obliges marketers to display a clear notice allowing spam to be stopped. Unsubscribing is therefore simple and obvious. But different scenarios are possible:
- If the SMS is sent by a known sender (ISP, brand, etc.), simply send the Stop message to the number indicated in the message
- If the SMS is sent by an unidentified 10-digit number, simply reply to the message by simply sending a Stop
- If the sender's number is 5 digits and starts with a 3, you can also send a simple Stop by answering the number. If the latter begins with a 6, a 7 or an 8, it is likely that your unsubscribe SMS is surcharged.
Here too, you can file a report in the event of a recurrence. These reports must be sent by SMS to 33 700, which will take the necessary steps with the sender's operator, just like yours if it is not the same one.
To take matters into your own hands, you can also block unwanted numbers on Android as on iPhone with the possibility of filtering SMS messages from unknown numbers.
The editorial advises you:
- Android: how to transfer your SMS and MMS to a new smartphone
- Android Messages for the web: how to send text messages from a PC
