the account status is lost. Your renewable payment
failed. Dijon Harris reads some of the robot text
messages bombarding her phone. was like, oh my gosh,
I missed the package. She'll often interrupt her work
as a personal stylist to suss out is the text from a
client or is it from a con artist They have been a
nightmare to say kindly, a growing national nightmare,
complaints to the FCC About unwanted text messages
eclipsed 15,000 last year. According to our data
analysis. These are just some of the phone numbers
people across America have complained about one thing.
You notice there are tens of thousands of different
numbers blowing up phones with unwanted text messages.
The one flag most widely nationwide isn't a real number
at all. It shows up on caller id as a bunch of zeros.
Many of the other phone numbers have inactive are
codes. If somebody is hiding their identity or posing
as somebody else, then right from the start, you know
that there's trouble we found the most frequent
complaints relate to political robot texts along with
messages about prizes, one mortgage and payday loans,
prescription drugs and health insurance. While some
robot texts are legitimate, many are schemes to get
your personal information or your money. Some of them
are, you know, really kind of scary and legitimate
looking. It's sms phishing known as skirmishing. Some
may be from a real person like wrong number. Spam
I get them all the time. So while we've been working on
the story, I actually got a text from a number. I do
don't recognize. It just says hi, I write, who is this
The person replies, this is Annie, maybe I save the
wrong number, but texts like these don't end there. And
he just keeps texting me asking, what is your name
telling me Encounter is fate Basically the bad guys
will try anything to get you to respond because guess
what Scammers can't scam if they don't engage with you.
Last year, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel
requiring wireless providers block illegal robot text.
Similar rule has helped to reduce annoying robocalls,
but the three other FCC commissioners have not yet
publicly agreed to adopt a plan of attack for robot
text. When we asked about that, two of the three
commissioners declined to answer why not. And
Commissioner Brendan Carr's off tells us he is happy
to be working with Chairwoman Rosenworcel On her
proposals for ending the scourge of illegal texts and
calls for. Now you can take your own steps to fight
junk texts first. Don't respond like I did also block
the phone number and forward the text 77-6 that spells
out spam and will alert your cell phone provider. It's
definitely another job. Another to add to my to
do list to like decipher through text messages
to avoid what could be a scheme. There is nothing more
annoying. Patrick joins us now from Washington. So
Patrick, I mean there are a lot of complaints here. So
do we know why the FCC isn't taking action against
these robot text. I mean I even get them sometimes from
my own number, it is the worst, isn't it And the FCC
really isn't saying why they are taking so long with
this. But they are saying that they are working on it
and that they want to get it right. If you think about
it, the FCC has to make sure that the technology
actually exists. If they make a rule for the cell phone
providers to actually filter out those unwanted Text
and to make sure that you still get all the text you
want. Because let's face it, there are a lot of
robotics that we do want to receive. We do want to know
when a package has arrived at our porch. We do want to
get a robot text from our kids school let's say or a
reverse 911. So they're trying to thread a needle and
it is taking some time. Yeah. And so with that if you
do get a text that you're not 100% sure how can you
determine if it is one of those important ones like yo
mentioned or Annie texting you. Right. Well that's a
giveaway. If someone is texting you and you don't know
who they are. As tempting as it might be to respond to
that or maybe play with them a little bit, you don't
want to respond to that. So that's the first thing if
you haven't received a text from a place before be
suspicious. But if it's a if it's about an account
let's say it's from a bank and maybe you bank with them.
But you think I don't think that I opened that accoun
or whatever best thing to do there according to the FCC
is to actually log into your account and see if you
have have a message. But all that stuff takes time and
it is really annoying. But for the for the time being
we just have to sort of wait it out until the sec comes
up with some rules. For relief. My sister, she actually
got a text from Paypal I think it was and it was a
charge on her account on Paypal. It go on the actual
website, go into your account double check. So that
makes sense. But what are the rules for who can send a
robot text basically If you get a robot text it has to
be because somewhere along the line you signed up to
receive them now it might be in fine print. But those
robotics are illegal if you don't actually sign up for
them. The key thing is to really keep an eye on the
text that you get. If you see a link at any point on
any of those texts make sure that you don't click on it
Unless you absolutely know that it's real. But it's
tough right Because with a robot call someone's on the
phone, you can sort of hear them out a little bit, you
can hear it. There's that pause before they start
speaking. But with the text it can be just 10 words and
you have to try to figure out with just those 10 words,
whether it's legit or not. Very frustrating, I block
them right away. I'm like, I don't have time for this.
All right. Patrick Terpstra national investigative
reporter, appreciate your time, really, a story that
people really care about.