Hey all, I’ve been having the exact same problem and it’s been happening like every day. Here’s what I did:
I called T-Mobile 611, told them I’ve been getting spam/phishing texts from email addresses continuously, and asked to have email addresses blocked from texting me. They will ask you to first, forward the text message content (long-press a corner of that text bubble far away from the link, and options should show up; one is “forward”). Forward to 7726.
The person should then move onto blocking texts from short codes that aren’t recognized. Apparently, email addresses still use short codes to send mass texts to people, so this is supposed to block those too.
Whether it actually worked or not, I guess I’ll need to wait and see. But apparently this should solve the problem. I didn’t get a clear response to why T-Mobile doesn’t offer their customers the option to block emails from texting like Sprint does, but (hopefully) this issue has been addressed. If it does not work and I still get texts from emails, I’ll update here. I hope it works for you all as well, if you try!
Can T-Mobile comment on the issue? We are all receiving spam from various email addresses coming straight to SMS.
I can confirm that I have the “Block TMOmail.net email” and “Block Instant Message sent via SMS” and “Scam Block” all enabled.
I am on iPhone and can confirm that the message is labeled “text message” coming straight to my phone number (not an email address containing my phone’s number), and it is also not labeled as “iMessage”. (It is 100% an SMS message, not iMessage.)
I’ve forwarded every single one of these to 7726, and received confirmation.
I have pretty consistently received these messages around every day or every other day since porting in to T-Mobile and never received these messages on Verizon, so the inability to block (or ability to receive) these messages appears to be a T-Mobile issue.
I came across this post idk if it's been referenced but it pretty much sums up the futility of T-Mobiles account settings on this issue and the tech peeps not having a solution despite it being months now.
Hey all, I’ve been having the exact same problem and it’s been happening like every day. Here’s what I did:
I called T-Mobile 611, told them I’ve been getting spam/phishing texts from email addresses continuously, and asked to have email addresses blocked from texting me. They will ask you to first, forward the text message content (long-press a corner of that text bubble far away from the link, and options should show up; one is “forward”). Forward to 7726.
The person should then move onto blocking texts from short codes that aren’t recognized. Apparently, email addresses still use short codes to send mass texts to people, so this is supposed to block those too.
Whether it actually worked or not, I guess I’ll need to wait and see. But apparently this should solve the problem. I didn’t get a clear response to why T-Mobile doesn’t offer their customers the option to block emails from texting like Sprint does, but (hopefully) this issue has been addressed. If it does not work and I still get texts from emails, I’ll update here. I hope it works for you all as well, if you try!
Here's my update: that didn't work. I still got two yesterday. So I guess we're screwed until T-Mobile decides to take this seriously. 😡
Can T-Mobile comment on the issue? We are all receiving spam from various email addresses coming straight to SMS.
I can confirm that I have the “Block TMOmail.net email” and “Block Instant Message sent via SMS” and “Scam Block” all enabled.
I am on iPhone and can confirm that the message is labeled “text message” coming straight to my phone number (not an email address containing my phone’s number), and it is also not labeled as “iMessage”. (It is 100% an SMS message, not iMessage.)
I’ve forwarded every single one of these to 7726, and received confirmation.
I have pretty consistently received these messages around every day or every other day since porting in to T-Mobile and never received these messages on Verizon, so the inability to block (or ability to receive) these messages appears to be a T-Mobile issue.
I came across this post idk if it's been referenced but it pretty much sums up the futility of T-Mobiles account settings on this issue and the tech peeps not having a solution despite it being months now.
Yup, and further, the "solution" they have didn't fix anything. I got TWO of those email texts yesterday. TWO. ON A SATURDAY.
I had my number for almost 15 years on Sprint. Never once get an email to text spam; ever. I believe T-Mobile may need to dig deeper to find a solutions to this. I have a sense the ball is dropped time and again. :(
T-mobile needs to fix this. I have never received a text message from an E-mail until the last few weeks, now I get several everyday. All from shady looking emails, every one of them different & all have shady looking http addresses. I never hand out my real phone number, especially online. How & why T-mobile would allow spammers to access their customers like this is beyond me. If anyone has a solution to this, id like to know it. & wth marked this as “Solved” ?
Its been a year of this now. Tmobile doesn't care.
They never did.
Yeah t-mobile is utter crap. I rate them at near comcast-levels of garbage. The only thing keeping me here is the military discount.
Apparently Verizon has an option to block emails being sent to sms that can be activated via their customer login page.
As the TMobile is unwilling to take any real action the best option for this becomes installing a 3rd application on the device that blocks emails-to-sms at the device-level rather than the network-level.
KeyMessages on android has this functionality, but it is a premium feature. im sure there are iPhone and other android apps that will do it.
I’ve recently started getting them, too. So irritating! If some other cell phone service provider offers the same service at the same price that I’m paying for T.M., and they’re able to block these stupid spam email texts, I’ll be switching for sure. Are you paying attention here, T.M.?
As much as I hate reviving dead threads, this problem still persists and a quick skim though this feed shows no real answers. Has anyone figured out how to stop the email to sms/mms spam?
Sadly, I think it is a scope larger than tmobile. I’m not finding anywhere with information on truly stopping it.
Seems even the nerds on reddit are stumped on how to stop it, that surprises me. But I did read AT&T has disabled the email to sms functionality - But that post was 9 years old o.O
Hey guys, does this need either press or John Legere attention?
Because either of those outlets is open to me (clubhouse for John since he seems to be in rooms that I mod in on a daily basis) or some security tech writers who are already giving TMobile a roughing up for their repeated security failings.
If I'm understanding, it looks like the setting to disable email to SMS has been completely ineffective for everyone here. I'm not impacted, but people close to me are, hence my interest. But if anyone has further detail, feel free to comment.
I'll also forward to staffers in the Senate commerce committee. Can't guarantee any of these will have traction, but the fact that a common carrier is enabling such gross violations of spam regulations should be a driver for accountability.
Hey guys, does this need either press or John Legere attention?
Because either of those outlets is open to me (clubhouse for John since he seems to be in rooms that I mod in on a daily basis) or some security tech writers who are already giving TMobile a roughing up for their repeated security failings.
If I'm understanding, it looks like the setting to disable email to SMS has been completely ineffective for everyone here. I'm not impacted, but people close to me are, hence my interest. But if anyone has further detail, feel free to comment.
I'll also forward to staffers in the Senate commerce committee. Can't guarantee any of these will have traction, but the fact that a common carrier is enabling such gross violations of spam regulations should be a driver for accountability.
Yes, please do and let us know who we can contact about this to let them how we’ve been impacted.
Hey guys, does this need either press or John Legere attention?
Because either of those outlets is open to me (clubhouse for John since he seems to be in rooms that I mod in on a daily basis) or some security tech writers who are already giving TMobile a roughing up for their repeated security failings.
If I'm understanding, it looks like the setting to disable email to SMS has been completely ineffective for everyone here. I'm not impacted, but people close to me are, hence my interest. But if anyone has further detail, feel free to comment.
I'll also forward to staffers in the Senate commerce committee. Can't guarantee any of these will have traction, but the fact that a common carrier is enabling such gross violations of spam regulations should be a driver for accountability.
No idea who those are; but It surely needs to be brought to FTC attention. Because we know this is more than just a tmobile issue.
It seems that even after a year, this issue is on-going and malicious actors have become more advanced. What’s interesting is that when I use Windows Phone Link, the same messages appear from a different sender but when checking T-mobile usage, there’s absolutely no phone number at all for the given messages being received as MMS. What’s worse and somewhat counterintuitive is that to report SPAM we have to forward the message by opening them. And by opening them, anyone familiar with the Stagefright exploit would have reason to find this risky.
But if it might help find a solution, here is the message I keep getting over and over, which reminds me, to block them I have to open the message too! And by forwarding the message to SPAM (7726) triggers downloading content doesn’t it? I mean, I recently disabled auto-download but I don’t need it to stop auto-download of all MMS messages, just from ones not in my contact list. That seems to be a possible setting for images in emails, but I guess not MMS. But, I digress.
The MMS repeated message:
The obvious phishing MMS message from an emailHow it appears in my text message list
Interestingly how it shows up on Windows Phone Link
As you can see, it actually displayed a number instead of the email, but it’s a 12 digit number
The MMS subject line and Sender appear differently
Then while logged into T-mobile and viewing usage information it just shows blank for the phone number
And just to confirm like everyone else, TMOmail.net emails are blocked
Block Messages On for Block TMOmail.net emails
While I did see messages coming from 6245 (MAIL), they’re actually ones I signed up for:
Any “picture” messages originating from 6245 were valid
So I just don’t understand how T-Mobile doesn’t have a number for these picture messages being received, how they’re even being received in the first place without an origin number, whether or not by opening these messages to forward them and report them actually somehow confirms to spammers the number works (as I have disabled sending read receipts and my device shows a brief notification upon opening one of these messages that it’s “converting the message into a multimedia message”) whether or not it’s a device issue, and why T-Mobile’s anti-spam features can’t seem to detect them no matter how many I report.
Every time I open the message, this displays at the bottom
I get one of these nearly every day if not two and it’s just concerning if something similar to the .gif exploit might still exist where my information could be stolen, especially with today’s security of 2 factor authentication, device proximity verification, financial banking/investing apps, and mobile pay apps all on our mobile devices, what can be done?
I’m not familiar with how mobile data transmission works but can’t there be a way to block autoloading particularly only from non-contacts or something? With it being disabled for everyone, that means if I don’t open a message in time, the message might no longer be available.
I’ve even tried logging into the email account where it’s MYNUMBER@tmomail.net but I can’t seem to get the password right for some reason even though I can log onto my T-mobile account just fine. And, if I try to go to https://my.t-mobile.com/account/profile/tmobile_id the page is just blank and doesn’t load. I disabled all ad blockers, changed site permissions, and still nothing.
So disheartening to find this thread over a year old and still no workable solution with only mild hope of resolution if calling T-Mobile support. Hopefully somehow the information above might help a more tech savvy programmer of sorts figure out how to stop this.
Email to SMS Text (TMOMail) can be blocked by adding the Free feature BEMLS.
Thank you.
Gary
If you refer to the screenshot above, for “Block Messages” you’ll notice it is set to “On: Block TMOmail.net email” yet the message somehow was able to bypass this rule. This seems to be more serious than a simple “adding the Free feature BEMLS” that’s, as noted, apparently not having any sort of effect on preventing this message from being received, while appearing like an email and, could be potentially a more serious security flaw, as noted below with details in reference to the post just before yours.
It seems that it’s possible it’s not coming from an email and may have disguised it’s source number from not only my phone, but from being properly logged on my T-mobile account or otherwise will be referred to as the communications routing, as it seemingly goes undetected as a phone number and leaving no phone number logged for the message’s origin, at least when viewing message logs on the T-mobile website (which normally lists the phone number for messages being received). In a way, it seems to be able to bypass the email disabled settings by being a phone number but is able to hide it’s number from even T-Mobile so that it can’t be blocked, at least that’s my speculation based on the evidence shown above.
Indications of security flaws that pose questions such as, why do different numbers get reported for the same message? How is it masking it’s phone number to appear as an email on my phone but on my computer it seems to read coming from a 12-digit number, or could it be that the variance in text format (Unicode, UTF, ASCII,ANSI, etc.) just makes it seem that way somehow? How are emails still arriving as MMS? Is it still possible somehow for emails to be sent to a phone number aside from the aforementioned [PHONENUMBER]@tmomail.net (such as using an online service or something similar)?
Whatever the case may be, since this post, it appears to have been stopped, at least this particular message (other SPAM continues). If there was action taken, it has been done unbeknownst to me and whether or not it was done covertly to prevent making known any sort of potential vulnerabilities, thank you to whoever played a role in stopping these messages.
