If your message inbox has become a bulletin board for strangers, this is the current, 2026-accurate way to quiet it. Five steps, in order of impact, using tools built into iOS plus one that is not.

Step 1: Turn on filtering for unknown senders

Open Settings, go to Messages, and under Message Filtering turn on Filter Unknown Senders. Texts from people outside your contacts move to a separate list instead of interrupting you. With a filtering app installed, this same switch is where you hand the work to a smarter filter.

Step 2: Report junk instead of just deleting

When a spam text arrives from an unknown sender, iOS shows a Report Junk option beneath it. Use it. Reporting deletes the message and tells your carrier and Apple about the sender, which slowly starves the operation behind it.

Step 3: Block repeat offenders

For a number that keeps returning, open the conversation, tap the name at the top, then Info, then Block Caller. Blocking works best for persistent individual senders; for the wider flood, filtering does the heavy lifting.

Step 4: Break the two habits scammers rely on

Never reply — not even STOP — to a message from a number you do not know; a reply confirms your number is active and multiplies what you receive. And never tap a link you were not expecting, even if the message names a company you use. Go to the company's own app instead.

Step 5: Add a dedicated filter

The built-in tools sort known from unknown, but they cannot judge content. Blockr can: AI-generated keyword packs catch the scam patterns currently circulating, and your own keyword, number, and prefix rules decide the rest. Filtered texts go to Junk in Messages — your contacts are never touched, and iOS keeps message content private from everyone, including us.

What changes, what does not

Scam wording changes every season; these five steps have not changed in years because they attack the mechanics, not the wording. Set them up once, and your inbox goes back to being yours.