Americans received 87.8B spam texts, lost $10B in 2021, report finds

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Watch out for unwanted texts that you just can't stop, as scammers are getting millions of dollars from it. It used to be that you just had to worry about spam calls, now it's spam texts.

For the second year in a row according to the annual The RoboKiller Report 2021 Phone Scam Insights, spam texts outnumber spam calls.

The report found 87.8 billion spam texts were sent in 2021, which surpasses the 72.2 billion spam calls in the same timeframe. Many of these text scams lead to big losses if you click on one.

A popular scam right now involves getting a text that appears to be from your bank about a fraud charge on your account. If you click on the link or call the number, scammers attempt to get access to your bank account and drain it. Other forms of scam texts involve scammers pretending to be with a legit company like Netflix or Amazon and claiming an offer that is hard for you to pass up.

To try and stop scam texts, reply with STOP to the spam texts to opt-out and unsubscribe your number from the mailing list. Another tip is to block the number to prevent further texts. You can also report scam and spam text messages, by forwarding the text to 7726 (spam), reporting it on the FTC fraud website, and reporting it as fraud to your cell phone carrier.