I decided to take the chance. If it worked then problem solved. If it didn't then I could forward them as you suggest.

Photo uploaded to Post 26.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

I haven't had a spam/scam SMS message for days now, however I have had a few calls. These days if it's a number that I don't recognise I say nothing when I pick up the call (until the caller speaks), and usually the caller -- presumably a robot-- hangs up immediately.

I'm still waiting on that money lol.

Well, it's now a couple of weeks since I've not had a single bogus SMS text after forwarding them all to ACMA.

I didn't get any more wine ads either. Still get a few spam calls, which I do not answer. They either come from Victoria, Queensland, or from unknown mobiles. If it's important they can leave a message - which they usually don't.

They either come from Victoria, Queensland

Those are 'spoofed' numbers, which is what the scammers depend on for anonymity and difficulty of traceability.

Fortunately I do not speak to anyone in those states by phone - so it's a dead giveaway when those numbers appear on the display. Seems they outsmarted themselves.

Been getting a lot of those "Couldn't deliver your parcel" things lately, where they want you to click a link. The SMS doesn't even have a sender name, it's a dead giveaway that it's trouble.

Yes, after a few weeks of respite they're back and others are getting them, too. Lots of 'your face appears on our website', or similar. All forwarded to ACMA.

I have a phone with two SIM cards. Both cop the "your package is here" messages. Each one comes from a different Australian phone number. My guess there is a virus on peoples' phones and the owners don't know they are sending the messages. It seems like a waste of time sending these to the ACMA though. They are too numerous to keep up with.

The dumb thing is, the work "package" is very rarely used to describe mail, with the word "parcel" being far more commonplace in Australia so the cause of these messages has probably originated elsewhere in the world.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

It seems like a waste of time sending these to the ACMA though.

It's now a reflex action for me: forward to ACMA then delete.

They have requested this, so I'm happy to do my bit to assist.

There are some double edged swords here. Reply & they know they have a live one.

When you are on line there are often tracking cookies & such coming in & I have found over decades that there needs to be something on the computers to monitor or get rid of them. On some computers it can take hours to get rid of the rubbish and as I have said before it cost one lot a lot of money, when grandson downloaded an infected game.

Clearly the peddlers of virus software have not helped their customers by no longer, supporting us nor an OS like Windows XP, when there still is a lot of computers with it: out there.

Marc

QUOTE: Consumers can also report scam calls to the Scamwatch website at www.scamwatch.gov.au.

These reports are directly helping to identify scam calls for blocking by the telecommunications industry.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-21/accc-scam-calls-are-increasing-how-to-avoid/100847224

I routinely forward spam SMS messages to the ACMA number. In my recent experience, the volume and frequency of such scam spam has reduced dramatically from the utter nuisance it once was, so it seems that something is happening behind the scenes.

One can feel un-loved if you don't get at least two scams a day on the phone and email. I shudder to think how big the blocked email list is?

You can block the phone number but rest assured, you will get a new number. I just sent about ten numbers to Scamwatch.

With the bank if you have serious doubt, you should contact them on a number that you know is theirs & not the one on the email, or if they have not closed the local branch, go visit.

Interesting that on getting rid of the online Telstra Bills I never authorised, & managing to get them back to snail mail. I have not seen a fake one.