Cell phone spam can tack on costs

It’s bad enough when you have to wade through spam e-mails offering cheap prescription drugs or cheap sex, but when spam hits your cell phone, it can cost you money.

If you’re not on a text-messaging plan, each text message can typically cost you 10 cents.

QUESTION: What can I do if I get an unwanted text message?

ANSWER: Report unwanted text messages to the Federal Communications Commission at www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints .html or 1-888-225-5322.

Try contacting your wireless carrier and asking for a refund of that spam; some companies, such as Verizon Wireless, will refund that message cost if you’re not already on a text-messaging plan.

About 18 percent of cell owners, or one in six, report receiving unsolicited text messages on their phones from advertisers, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center last year.

It’s illegal under the federal CAN-SPAM Act to send unwanted commercial e-mail messages to cell phones without your permission. This includes any message that includes an Internet address, like the one my colleague received last week.

The law, however, doesn’t cover text messages from someone with whom you have a prior business relationship, such as a message about an existing account or warranty information about a product you bought or from your wireless carrier. Noncommercial messages — say, if you got one about a candidate running for public office — are also exempt.

The FCC ban also doesn’t apply to “short messages,” typically sent from one mobile phone to another without the use of an Internet address.

It also won’t apply to e-mail messages that you have forwarded from your computer to your wireless device.

Some phone companies also allow you to block all Internet messages, all messages from one domain or specific e-mail addresses.

Lucky for my colleague, she has a text-messaging plan.

Just for kicks, I sent a message to the e-mail address referenced in her spam message, and no surprise, it was returned undeliverable.