Hotmail Spam Texts (How To Eliminate Them)

Have you been getting spam texts from Hotmail and are wondering how to stop them? I’ll show how to do that in this article.

How To Stop Hotmail Spam Texts

You can filter unwanted text messages or stop them before they reach you using these methods:

• Block text messages on phone
• Use your wireless provider
• Use a call blocking app

Block Hotmail Text Messages On Phone

You can stop receiving unwanted Hotmail texts on Android or iPhone by blocking the numbers that send them.

Note here that I say “number” because your service provider treats emails as numbers when they route an email by SMS.  

Block Unwanted Texts On Android

These are the steps for blocking unwanted texts on a device using Android. Before you start, update your device OS to Android 6.0 and up as this will not work on lower versions of the OS.

1. Go to your call History by clicking on the Phone App and selecting the “More” icon.
2. Tap “call history” then long press the spamming number.
3. Select “Block or report spam”. You can also just tap on the number you want to block and the block button will appear below it.

If the spammer used an unknown number, you can block it by following step 1 above,

1. Then select “settings”.
2. Tap “blocked numbers”
3. Enable “unknown”

This will also work on private numbers.

Block Unwanted Texts On An iPhone

Apple’s Spam blocking service allows you to do a lot more than just block phone numbers. You can also block Hotmail emails, filter iMessages you’ve received from unknown senders, and report any iMessages that you suspect are spam.

Here’s how to block phone numbers if you are getting Hotmail spam texts on iPhone or iPad:

1. Tap the info button next to the number you want to block. This will take you to a details screen where you can hide alerts. While hiding alerts will keep you from being distracted by unwanted text messages, it won’t block spam texts on iPhone. You must block the number.
2. To block the number, click on it while still on the details page. Then Scroll down and tap “block this caller”.

It’s that easy!

You can also block a number from the messages app by going to the conversation in question and tapping the number that sent the message.

Tap info, then “block this caller”. iPhone also allows you to categorize your callers using filters. This puts calls from private or unknown numbers into one place, making them easier to deal with.

Use Your Wireless Provider

Wireless providers offer solutions for flagging or blocking calls. Some of those tools are built into devices. Below is a brief overview of the options offered by different providers:

AT&T’s Call Protect

Call protect is a freemium app that blocks spam and fraud calls, monitors nuisance calls, blocks unknown calls, and lets you create a personal block list. Premium features such as caller ID and reverse number lookup come at a fee.

Verizon’s Call Filter

Verizon also offers a freemium spam detection and spam filter app. You can use it to monitor call logs and block calls, allow numbers, and report spam.

You also get a neighborhood filter on the free plan. You have to upgrade to the paid plan to access other features such as caller ID, spam lookup and personal block list.

U.S. Cellular’s Call Guardian

The Guardian app is US Cellular’s spam detection and call blocking app. Its free version lets you report spam calls and also displays “potential spam” when a suspicious call is detected, or “Spam caller” when a call originates from a number in your spam list.

If you upgrade to premium Call Guardian, you can get more details about calls, plus their risk levels (high, medium, low). Calls will also display business ID.  

In addition to Call Guardian, US Cellular offers automatic network blocking, preventing all suspicious calls before they happen.

T-Mobile’s Scam Shield

Like its counterparts, T-Mobile also has an app that offers scam protection technologies such as Scam Block and Caller ID. The app goes a step further to protect your privacy by giving you a proxy number to share when you are concerned about sharing your personal number.

You can also get all these features activated by calling customer service or visiting a T-Mobile Store.

Call Blocking App

Call blocking apps are also quite effective at dealing with spam calls. With so many paid and free options, there is something for everyone, be you an Apple, Blackberry, Windows or Android user.

All you need to do is go into your phone’s app store or market place, and download one.

Why Am I Getting Texts From Hotmail Accounts

You’ve probably heard of phishing, a tactic used by scammers to lure you into revealing personal and financial details online, but have you heard about smishing?

Well, it’s the same thing, only smishing happens on text. As in they send you text messages with links or with promises of wins, vacations or other legit-sounding details like “your parcel has been dispatched. Click here to confirm”.

What’s interesting about smishing is that sometimes, the texts you receive aren’t regular texts at all. They are from outlook (previously Hotmail). So, you may get a text message from a Hotmail account with a link.

Those messages are spam, and you are getting them because:

• Someone wants to know if your number is real so that they can sell it to advertisers
• You are about to be scammed
• A link in a spam message will most likely install malware in your phone to steal personal information.

Can Someone Text You From A Hotmail Account?

Yes.

Hotmail (Microsoft outlook) comes with an SMS feature that sends or forwards messages in the same way as an email. But this service has been discontinued on Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online) and is only available to users on Exchange 2016/19.

Text messaging on outlook was undoubtedly created to give people more ways to communicate from their inbox by sending you texts like this one, where the sender and recipient have some sort of relationship.

However, there are those who use Hotmail text messaging feature for malicious reasons.

Enabling this feature requires some configuration, But I’ll jump the gun here a little bit and first show you how to send a SMS from exchange 2016/19, assuming the configuration is already done.

Here’s the simple process:

1. Launch outlook, go to file, then click “settings”.
2. Select “general” and navigate to “text messaging”.

Simple. Right?

Now back to configuring outlook for email sending and receiving. Anyone who knows their way around commands in PowerShell can set up this configuration.

Microsoft actually give examples of how to do this on their website. So, anyone can do it.

This method might not work for everyone though as Microsoft stipulates some device, server, and OS requirements that allow their SMS service to work.

They (Microsoft) do however allow the SMS service to be offered through third-party services, so people who cannot meet Microsoft’s requirements still have options for sending text messages from their emails.

How To Report Spam Hotmail Text

There are various ways to report spam Hotmail text.

• You can report it through the messaging app of your phone, or
• You can forward the message to 7726.

Let’s go into these methods in more detail.

Note: 7726 spells “SPAM”. It works in the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand. Other countries may have different shortcodes from this one. Confirm the anti-spam short code for your country with your carrier.

For iPhone: Report Hotmail Text Message Spam In The Messages App

You can delete spam messages on iPhone and also report them.

You cannot delete a spam text in the same way you do a normal text. That is, you cannot delete by long pressing and then clicking “delete”, because the junk message won’t select. At least that’s my experience so far.

So here is what you do:

1. In the messaging app, tap “edit” on the top left-hand side of your screen.
2. Select the spam text you want to delete and/or report. You’ll be given the option to delete the message and also report junk. When you report junk, Apple will receive the sender’s contacts.

For Android: Report Hotmail Text Message Spam On Android

Reporting a spam text message on Android automatically blocks the sender and moves the message to the spam folder.

To report spam on Android,

1. Go to text messages
2. Tap and hold to select the message you want to report
3. Tap the block icon, select report spam and select ok.

You can also block and report spam by going inside a conversation, tapping more options, selecting details and finally tapping “block and report spam”.

Copy The Message and Send It To 7726

How To Forward Hotmail Spam Texts On iPhone To 7726

If you receive an iMessage that looks like spam, here’s what you should do.

1. Long press on the message (don’t click on any links in the message, just click on the general message body)
2. Choose the “More” option that appears under the message, then forward the message to 7726.

Your service provider will respond with a message asking you to forward them the spamming number.

How To Report Hotmail Spam Texts On Android To 7726

To report a spam Hotmail text on Android, follow these steps:

1. Long press on the spam text to see all options.
2. Select forward
3. Type 7726 as the recipient.

You’ll receive a text from 7726 asking you to send them the phone number that sent the text. Forward it to them.

And that’s it!

What To Do If You Replied To A Hotmail Spam Text

Scammers always evolve their phishing (in this case smishing) methods. One trick they use a lot nowadays is to act like they know you.

They may address you by name, tell you they got your number from your friend, whom they also mention by name.

Such a spam message might go something like: “Hey, I got your number from Jenny. Was thinking it might be a good idea to catch up this weekend. There’s this really cool place just nearby. Here’s a pin for it. So excited to see you! LMK. Don”.

I have learned the hard way that the best thing to do when you receive such a message is to always stop and think. For instance, in the case of a message from a “courier”, you should ask yourself questions like:

• Why do I have a package pending while I know for sure I didn’t order one? In this case, get the official number of the courier who’s allegedly holding your package and call them. Don’t call any of the numbers on the message, and no matter what, don’t give your information over the phone.
• Could it be a surprise from someone? If so, who? Here’s your answer: If it’s a surprise, whoever sent it will likely follow up with you in due course if they get a return to sender.

But sometimes, you may not have the presence of mind to do all this thinking, and you may reply to a SPAM text,

While replying doesn’t necessarily give spammers access to your accounts and other personal information, it does confirm to them that your number is a real number, and that it’s associated with a real person .

So after you reply, you’ll most likely receive many more text messages from the number.

You can do the following to safeguard yourself:

• Report the number to 7726 (or the anti-spam short code specific to your country). This won’t stop the messages from coming in though. The spammers will keep sending you messages from different numbers.  Report every number you receive and delete or mark spam.
• Enable the unknown numbers filter in the settings of your phone so that it automatically filters all messages that aren’t in your contacts list.
• In case you shared sensitive information in your reply, contact the issuer of that service and change your PINs and passwords.