What happens when you select "report junk" for texts and emails?
Junk mail has a new meaning nowadays. Rather than filling an actual mailbox, people are getting bombarded with texts and emails they never asked for.
The messages press you to send money for an unpaid bill or invite you out for a round of golf. The phone number sending the message might have an area code you don't know or might only be five digits long. No matter where it came from, junk texts steadily interrupt our day, often with nefarious intentions.
"I had one that was like the Minnesota Department of Transportation, and said something along the lines of an outstanding toll that you need to pay, and had a link there, and it just was very sketchy," one woman told WCCO. "I automatically report junk. I delete it and block the sender right away."
Andy Roehrs, a solutions architect with Rymark IT Navigation in Minneapolis, said reporting the texts as junk is really your only option.
What happens when you report a text or email as junk?
"When you report a text or email as junk, typically, it's going to go to whatever service provider you're using," said Roehrs.
That means Apple, Google or Android fields your report.
Will reporting messages as junk lead to fewer of them?
"Yes. It helps to train their models on detection of those messages coming through," said Roehrs.
When a messaging app suggests reporting a text as junk, it's likely because someone else already reported it, giving the app data to better detect spam.
"It's looking for patterns. It's looking for source information about the number that it was sent from and it's going to report that back to Google or Apple to train their models," said Roehrs.
Email services like Outlook have similar reporting functions, even thanking people for helping train their system after reporting a message as junk.
Should we also block the phone number sending the text?
Roehrs said yes, adding, "A lot of times, the procedure when you report something as junk, the next step will be to ask you if you want to block that sender. You do want to block that sender."
Doing so can prevent that specific sender from reaching out to you again.
Roehrs said there's not much we can do beyond reporting text and emails as junk to prevent getting them in the first place.
"There really is no way to prevent messages from coming to you," he said.
Just like anyone can send a letter to your mailbox at your home, anyone can send a text or email to your phone number or email address. That's why reporting and blocking numbers is helpful. It's a never-ending battle fought one finger tap of the phone screen at a time.
"It's the maintenance of having any service that you are able to be contacted at," said Roehrs.
In addition to reporting junk messages, experts say never respond. Otherwise, the sender will know your number is active and find other ways to contact you.
