How To Protect Your Phone Number From Holiday Scam Texts
Forward holiday texts to 7726, block unknown senders, and check orders in your retailer app instead of tapping links.
Protect your number from holiday scam texts by refusing to click, reply, or call back, then forwarding the message to 7726 for carrier review. Check the claim separately in the store, shipper, or bank website or app you already use. Smishing means scam texts that pretend to be deliveries, prize wins, or payment alerts.
Holiday shopping creates more of these messages, and fake sender names can look familiar. A pause plus a separate check keeps your number and accounts safer.
Verification note: Program terms and availability can change. This page was checked against linked sources on November 03, 2026.
What should you do first?
An unexpected holiday text about a package, prize, or locked account needs a pause, not a tap. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency holiday shopping safety page advises not clicking links, opening attachments, calling numbers, or replying, and checking the claim through the retailer, shipper, or bank website or app instead in its holiday online shopping safety guidance. Treat a delivery text you did not expect as smishing, especially with an odd link or a request for personal details.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service says unsolicited USPS-style texts with strange links fit this pattern when you did not request tracking. Do not tap the link or share address, payment, or login details.
Watch for these common pressure signs: Use the same separate check for prize and savings messages tied to entries or orders. Open the store site or app yourself and look for the order, tracking notice, or account message there.
- a tracking link you did not request
- urgency to pay, update, or confirm now
- a request to reply, call back, or open an attachment
How do you report the text?
Copy an unwanted holiday text and forward it to 7726, which spells SPAM on most keypads. The Federal Trade Commission consumer advice says carriers use these reports to investigate the sender and improve network blocking for all mobile users in its Federal Trade Commission guide to recognizing and reporting spam texts. Keep the original message intact when you forward it.
File the same text separately with the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. That report supports law-enforcement tracking of larger fraud operations rather than blocking the number itself. It matters even when the number looks already disconnected.
Forward suspicious USPS-style texts to 7726 as well, and send suspicious delivery emails to [email protected]. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service asks for that split because texts and emails travel through different review paths.
Reporting takes less than a minute and helps others receive fewer versions.
How do you block and filter future texts?
On iPhone, use the Report Junk or Report Spam option when it appears, then Block the sender. Apple explains that this deletes the message, sends sender data to Apple, and helps reduce future messages in its Apple iPhone instructions for blocking and reporting messages. Turn on Filter Unknown Senders to sort unfamiliar numbers into a separate list.
Also turn on your carrier spam-filtering app and check phone-level blocking settings. The Federal Communications Commission call-blocking resources describe carrier tools and other blocking options for unwanted calls and texts in its Federal Communications Commission call-blocking resources. Blocking one holiday number alone cannot keep up because senders rotate spoofed numbers quickly.
Can you reduce legitimate marketing texts too?
Some holiday texts come from real stores after a purchase, entry, or messageUb prompt rather than criminals. Federal Communications Commission rules require prior consent for autodialed marketing texts. Register your numbers at donotcall.gov to reduce legitimate telemarketing contacts.
The registry has a clear limit because criminals ignore consent rules and keep texting anyway. Keep consent separate from safety, so you still pause, check elsewhere, and report suspicious messages. Keep reporting new versions instead of expecting one block to end them.