Stop SPAM on your Telus phone

I have "Pay & Talk" on my Telus cell phone. Telus has informed me that I will now be charged 15 cents for all text messages. Hmmph, I was NOT impressed. I don't often text, just because I'm more comfortable with a full size keyboard than a dinky little pad to type on, and I don't often receive text messages, other than every once in awhile from my daughter Dallas, especially when we're meeting up somewhere out of town. I didn't think this 15 cent charge was going to impact me too much... until I flipped open my phone the other day and I had my first spam text message. Something about "losing my details online and meet me at date (something) dot.com. (Hubby was standing there when I checked the message!!) I then realized that I just paid 15 cents to read that message. Not happy, especially if I start getting as many as I get in my email. Of course Telus told me that if I bought a feature I would get text messages for free, but like I said I don't use the feature enough for it to pay, and why should I pay to receive spam? I did some searching around online and read this:

Go to "Send or manage text messages" in mytelusmobility.com Select preferences, and then choose the message source to be blocked, either Web-generated or e-mail. (The last two boxes) Once you have used this blocking feature, you will not receive or be charged for text messages sent to you from a PC. You'll still be able to receive messages sent to you from a wireless phone, which are free of charge. (I don't think they are "free of charge" anymore so Telus should update there FAQ). This works for me tho' because Dallas and I can still send messages via our phones.

I told Dallas about it and we both changed our preferences. I then tested out her phone by sending her a message via the web and was told that the client was not accepting web messages. I sent her an email text message and she never received it, I would have expected a undeliverable notice back but I didn't get one.

Upon reading more in the Telus FAQ I spied this:

UPDATE: The following below works! Hubby had a spam message on his phone, I forwarded it to Telus on Saturday. Today (Monday) I checked his transaction history online and he was credited .15 cents :)
SPAM Messaging - This type of messaging is generally unwanted. SPAM messages are sent by companies and individuals to advertise to unwilling participants, on a mass scale. If SPAM is received on your handset, you can simply forward the spam message to 7726 with the word SPAM in the body of the message and your account will be adjusted automatically. A credit will be processed for the spam charges with no questions asked by TELUS.

Sure wish I would have known that when I got the message last week, if in fact, this is still in effect. I'll definitely try this if I receive another one.

If you deal with another phone company you might want to check out your preferences and change what you can, nobody should pay for spam. I think it's pretty bad that Telus can inform me that if I subscribe to a feature I will get "free" messaging but not tell me about the above two tidbits of info. The big question is why don't they charge the person sending the message instead of the person receiving it? That would certainly stop the spammers!