I've written before about the FCC's efforts to crack down on robocall scams.  Now the FCC is taking a stronger look at stopping text message scams.

press release put out earlier this week talked about proposed new rules that will be brought before the FCC's Commissioners at their open meeting on March 16th.

The proposed rules include setting up what is referred to as a 'Do-Not-Originate' list.  This would be a list of phone numbers where the owner of the phone number has said it will never be used to send text messages, and would include phone numbers for government agencies and "other well-known entities".  The list would also contain unassigned and unused phone numbers.  Service providers would then block any texts coming from a number on that list.

Providers would also be required to block text messages from suspected scammers upon notification from the FCC, similar to what they already do for robocall scammers.

Other proposed rules would extend the Do Not Call Registry protections to cover text messaging, and would close what is called the lead generator loophole.  The loophole is where someone would give consent to be contacted about one subject, and that consent would then be used to contact them about things unrelated to the original subject.

This isn't the only thing that will be discussed at the meeting next month.  Check out the agenda here.  If you are at all interested, the meeting starts at 6:30am Mountain Time on March 16th, and will be streamed live at fcc.gov/live.