Cash Money text message? and may be charged for replying

[Roadtrip100]

Hi Folks,

A random text from unknown that requires me to reply Stop to end msgs, when I reply stop I get a message this may cost ME.. money ?

I thought this stuff ended 10 yrs ago.. what is the best way to approach this crap.

Cheers

[computergeek541]

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@jp2 wrote:

Yes, you can block any number you want but remember you won't receive any promotions if you block PM

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Personally, I find all the Public Mobile text messages (not just the marketing ones) to be undesirable, so I tend to block as many of them as I can.  Blocking the messages themelves would just make it so that you wouldn't be notified of the offers.  But even if you unsubscribe to things such as the Koodo offers, that doesn't disqualify you from those offers.  I figured out that even after unsubcribing from the Koodo text message offers, that a Public Mobile customer remains eligible for such offers as long as any eligibility criteria have been met, regardless of whether or not Koodo actually sends the message to you.

[Luddite]

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@rsa wrote:

Can you just block the number?

I've been getting a lot of spoof calls lately and I just block them as they come in.

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That's how I manage these call on my iPhone. Took about 2 months to cut almost all out. Do have quite a long list of blocked numbers. 

[jp2]

Yes, you can block any number you want but remember you won't receive any promotions if you block PM

[rsa]

Can you just block the number?

I've been getting a lot of spoof calls lately and I just block them as they come in.

[Korth]

As mentioned above, PM is all prepaid and PM text plans are all "unlimited"*.  A non-PM app or non-PM server may not be able to determine whether or not additional charges might be applied, but the answer is always that no additional charges will be applied by PM.  In the event that some sort of charge would be applied for whatever reason, it won't ever be charged by PM.

* I note that PM just released a new promo with limited talk/text allocations.  But this one plan is a new thing, I don't know how it works yet, and it's not at all the same as how all of PM's other plans work.

[jp2]

The messaging app on my phone gives a warning about SMS cost any time you send a text to a number with less than 10 digits because it cannot determine if it will charge or not 

[Korth]

Random msg from unknown "requires" a response (which may cost you money).

Smells like spam.  Don't even bother replying - it'll just put you on their list of "active" numbers and escalate random spam recon to relentless spam assault.  Just block the sender forever ... if it is indeed someone/something important then they'll make an effort to contact you some other way.

[Roadtrip100]

Thanks for the info

[computergeek541 · Accepted solution]

This sounds to me to be what Telus calls "premium text messages".   There are services out there that will send you a joke of the day, horoscope, weather forecasts, etc. that are subscription based.  Such a subsription services end up being billed to your cell phone bill, and you get charged for each message.  Ironically, when you unsubsribe to these services, they will send you one last message to confirm that you have done so (although I believe that last message is sometimes a deliberate attempt to charge you for one more message). 

Public Mobile has no system in place to charge for such messages.  So, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Someone_here]

It won't cost you anything, since PM is prepay. If it is indeed a message that would cost you something, it simply won't go through. 

You can check the box " don't show this message again"  without problem and send the text 😉