If you’re like 90% of cellphone owners, you’re reading your text messages. With wide access and use of cellular devices, Americans have become accustomed to texting as a way of instant and reliable connection. With the ease of texting, we trust this communication and operate under the expectation that we won’t be the recipient of spam.

In addition to getting text messages from personal contacts, messages from companies can be helpful too. It’s nice to know immediately when your prescription is ready to pick up, or to be notified of suspicious activity on a bank account.

In a world where nearly 50 percent of email messages are marked as spam, only about three percent of text messages fall into the category of spam. Providers, security vendors, and even cloud services have worked hard to keep the world of text messaging relatively spam-free.

Here are some tips that you can use to help avoid spam text messages:

• The best line of defense in protecting yourself is to be aware of what you’re opening and clicking. If you don’t trust the sender or if the text sounds odd, don’t click on the link.
• If you receive an unwanted spam text from a legitimate company, be sure to reply ‘STOP,’ which will opt you out of their list. Be careful, though: Scammers use this same technique to lure you into replying STOP to their messages, which can help verify you and your number. A quick search can usually confirm if the number is legitimate.
• You can also help stop these texts to you and other customers. Your complaints to wireless companies allow them to investigate the root of the problem. Notify your wireless provider of the message by copying the text and sending it to SPAM (7726). You’ll then receive another text asking for the sender’s phone number.

Be sure to also check your wireless provider’s website for specific directions. Together, we can protect each other and ourselves from spam text messages and help keep text messaging a trusted experience.

Thought these tips were valuable? Great! It helps if more people are watching out for spam texts. Send these tips to your friends.