# What do spam and scam text messages look like?

## Direct answer

What do spam and scam text messages look like? Most scam texts fall into a handful of patterns: a package that cannot be delivered, a toll or fine that is overdue, a fraud alert from your bank, a job that pays for simple online tasks, and a friendly message that seems to have reached the wrong person.

The FTC's 2025 Data Spotlight named those five as the most reported text scams of 2024, a year in which people reported losing $470 million to scams that started with a text.

Almost all of them ask for one of three things: tap a link, reply, or call a number. The request is the part that matters, far more than the wording around it.

Plain spam is different from a scam. An aggressive marketer you never signed up with is annoying, but it wants a purchase, not your password or your bank details.

## Key takeaways

- Five patterns cover most scam texts: delivery, toll, bank alert, job and wrong number.
- The request (tap, reply or call) is the tell, not the wording.
- Spam wants a sale. A scam wants your money, your login or your trust.
- Verify through a channel you already have, never through anything inside the message.

Full page: https://www.smishalert.ai/answers/spam-text-message-examples
## Where SmishAlert fits

On iPhone, SmishAlert screens texts from unknown senders before anyone taps anything and moves likely scams out of the inbox.

For messages it cannot screen, such as iMessage threads or apps other than Messages, reporting is one tap on a screenshot or a forward, and it comes back with a plain verdict and the reasoning behind it.

When a message or link is confirmed malicious, the next unknown-sender check on any protected iPhone marks it automatically.

An individual can install SmishAlert on their own iPhone from the App Store.