Mobile Phone Spam, also know known as SMS Spam, SpaSMS or more popularly M-Spam, is a growing menace, notes David Pogue in his Circuits newsletter. It is worse than Email spam particularly because there is no way to scan and prevent it from reaching your Inbox before it is downloaded. Anti-SMS Spam applications available for mobile devices can only scan already received SMS text messages and quarantine them, if needed. But the message would have already reached your Inbox, resulting in charges (depending on the country you reside in).

Most of these spam SMS are sent through the internet to your Email-to-SMS address (10-digit mobile number@carrier.com) which is virtually free of cost rather than sending it directly to your mobile number via the operator/carrier’s SMS gateway which would result in a cost to the sender. Some providers provide a method to block such Internet based text messages while allowing aliases known only to your contacts:

+ AT&T: Log into mymessages.wireless.att.com. Under Preferences, you will find text-blocking and alias options. Here you can block messages from specific e-mail addresses or Web sites.

+ Verizon Wireless: Log into vtext.com. Under Text Messaging, select Preferences and choose Text Blocking. Here you can choose to block e-mail or Web based SMS as well as setup aliases.

+ Sprint: Log into sprint.com. Under My Online Tools, goto Communication Tools and select Text Messaging. On the Compose a Text Message page, under Text Messaging Options, click Settings & Preferences. Here you can block specific Phone Numbers, e-mail addresses and domains.

+ T-Mobile: Log into t-mobile.com and click Communication Tools. Here you can block all messages sent by e-mail or permit only messages sent to your phone’s e-mail address or alias, or create filters that block text messages containing certain phrases.