You block someone who continuously gives you unwanted attention, is scamming/conning you or is frequently spamming you with promotional messages.
You should also block someone who annoys you or sends you threatening, irrelevant or dangerous information.
To block messages conversation in your iPhone, follow this path
- Click the name or number at the top of the conversation.
- Hit the info button,
- Scroll down and then press on ‘Block this Caller’
To manage your list of blocked contacts and phone numbers, go to Settings, select Messages and click on Blocked Contacts.
To block a conversation in your Android phone, do the following actions.
- Go to the Messages app.
- On the Home screen, long press the conversation you want to block.
- Click Block
- Tap OK
Why Am I Getting Texts from a Blocked Number?
Have you blocked a mobile number but you still keep getting texts from that number? Is the person stalking you and filling your inbox with annoying unsolicited messages?
Find out the fixes you can apply to prevent it and protect yourself.
1. Ignore the persons texts
Do not ever respond to the stalker’s messages and he will eventually get tired and stop texting you.
Be consistent and just keep blocking and not responding at all and hopefully he will lose interest eventually by getting no response.
Keep blocking, muting and not responding until he has no choice but to give up.
If you have his caller ID, it is very easy to ignore him. Just be consistent and he will give up and find other people to prey on eventually.
2. Reboot your phone
To reboot your Android phone long press the Power button and choose either Restart or Power off Options.
If you have the latest Samsung devices simultaneously hold down the Power or Side button and Volume button to trigger Power Options menu pop up.
To reboot your iPhone push and clasp the side or top button until the power-off slider emerges, pull the slider, then wait thirty seconds for your device to turn off.
If your device is frozen or unresponsive, force-restart it. Then press and hold the side button until you see the Apple logo to turn your device back on.
3. Let Law enforcement, Private Investigators and those who have legal authority know about the unwanted texting
If you are still getting the stalker’s texts after ignoring their existence and rebooting your mobile, it advisable to contact your local police department and make a report or request a police investigation on them.
Police may redirect you to a Private Investigator as they may not have concrete evidence as the person disturbing your peace could turn out to be someone else.
You can also look for legal avenues for your protection like getting a restraining order.
What can you do when the person you have asked to leave you alone, declined their messages, and has blocked has made a new account and keeps texting you.
4. Know their new ID or contact and block them again
If they have an Apple ID that they are using to contact you with iMessage, you will have to block their Apple account if you know it.
5. Talk to your cellphone provider.
If they are still reaching out to you through text messages when their number is blocked call your mobile services provider and find out how they can help you
6. Be careful where you input your phone information next time
Spammers, scammers, hackers use technology to generate numbers automatically — so even if you have a brand-new number, you can still receive robotexts.
Fix – You can’t avoid them. Just keep blocking
Popular social networking platforms keep track of your online activity and sell the information on to advertisers.
Fix 2 – Don’t list your phone number publicly on social media,
Be careful when revealing phone numbers online such as when filling out online forms, entering competitions or loyalty programs as there’s the potential for it to end up in the wrong hands.
If you have ever dialed an 800, 888, or 900 number, your cell phone number is collected by an Automatic Number Identification (ANI) system to identify and store, and also match your phone digits with other digital data associated with you.
7. You may have blocked the unwanted texter on phone but not on email or IM or third party texting platforms
Spam texts are not coming from another phone but from a computer and are directed to your phone via an email address or instant messaging account
Spammers send messages in bulk, often to arbitrarily chosen or automatically generated numbers. They only need a few responses to justify their efforts.
He may be using a third-party app like WhatsApp or Signal for message contact, as that will use a data connection and will not be recognized in the same way as a text or Imessage.
Block the irritating texter everywhere. Try unblocking and then re-block them again in messages settings feature
Block them from all mediums including messages, phone, email (if you have their email), Facetime in the phone, email and FaceTime settings.
8. Phone hacks
Fix 1 – Reboot your phone again and this time make sure you close all apps, shut down the phone, then power back on.
Fix 2 – Install the latest iOS if you haven’t already (currently 16.0.2)
9. Delete his contact numbers
Remove his name from your contact list.
You need to completely erase or remove their contact from your phone.
You could enable Filter Unknown Senders in settings > messages in an iPhone but this will affect al unknown senders and will automatically move these messages to Filters in Messages.
You will no longer receive notifications for these messages.
Block all calls and message that are not in your contacts.
However, you will be at a disadvantage with professionals who call you back like doctors, mechanics or repairmen. Make sure save their numbers to not lose contact with them or get them to email you.
10. Mute and delete their messages
Mute messages from this sender, keep ignoring and not opening them, and batch delete these messages as soon as they come in. tap and slide left the message thread and then mute
11. Change your phone number
This is a very drastic method and if u have any acquaintances or friends in common, or he steals a phone bill, he will start texting you again.
Has someone been harassing you through text for some time. You have blocked him, and yet you are still receiving spam texts from him.
Have you blocked him through IMessage by choosing his contact, clicking on Info and then selecting Block.
Have you gone through the Settings, selected Messages and made sure he is on the list of Blocked Contacts, as well scrolling through Settings picking the Phone and looking at the Blocked Contacts list.
12. The person could be using another unblocked number to text you
Could it be that they this person is sending you texts in iMessage via an address/number that is not blocked?
Here is the fix.
-
- Go and open the conversation with him, try tapping their contact photo, then info, then click on info again.
- There should be a label “latest” which shows how that reached out to you whether via e-mail or another number
- Copy the “latest” address/number, and then go into Settings, choose Phone , tap on Blocked Contacts, select Edit and scroll all the way down, and paste the address/number there.
Have you received text from blocked number but the number shows up with no parenthesis or hyphens
Have you blocked a number from your phone from someone who has harassed me and just received a text from it and it now shows for example 1234567890 instead of (123)456-7890.
Why are you still receiving messages from this blocked number?
This could be due to a Phone software glitch.
Fix – Restart your phone and the number will format again to show the correct contact.
Fix 2 – Your phone still registers iMessage account
Go to your blocked list and see what the contact’s name is. If it is the unformatted number (XXXXXXXXX instead of (XXX)XXX-XXXX), then your device probably recognizes the iMessage account and is referring to it as the listed contact name under blocked accounts.
Fix 3 – Block the contact’s name and number beneath it. So, the contact’s name is probably an unformatted number.
Click the information drop down of the unformatted number? Delete details shown by the contact.
If you are still getting messages from a blocked number block each instance of that number such as those with prefixes and without e.g., those with and without the country code?
- Go to settings
- Click on messages
- Then scroll down to blocked and it should show all the numbers you blocked.
If the number sending you messages is not on the list, maybe you accidentally pressed unblock or there is a software glitch.
Having someone who you have blocked keep stalking you though texts can be very stressful and frustrating. Hopefully these tips above will help you get peace of mind and feel safe once more.