Can Tracfone block incoming/outgoing text and email on a phone/account?

**jimcpl** · 05-29-2011, 06:17 PM

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knows if Tracfone would be able to block both incoming and outgoing text and email messages, if I ask?

FYI, this is on a new LG420G, on pay as you go (no monthly plan).

Thanks,
Jim

**ST Dog** · 05-29-2011, 11:24 PM

I'm sure they can block outgoing with the proper codes. I doubt they would though.

Likely the same for incoming, though as long as you don't open/read them there's no time deducted.
Just delete it from the list in the inbox. My wife does it all the time.

**BobbyLee** · 05-29-2011, 11:57 PM

jimcpl,
They won't, if you don't want to receive text messages you're out of luck. Learn to delete them without reading them that way you won't get charged. The 420G receives free text messages (NOT MMS messages), the following is what I posted on another forum:
"Tip for receiving free text messages – When you receive a text message on your Tracfone LG 420G do not open the phone, instead hit the down volume button. The message will be visible on the external screen. Continue pushing the down button until it has opened all the pending messages and the time/date reappears on the external screen. Now you have opened all the pending messages, pulled them onto your phone, and it doesn’t deduct the .3 units per message. After the time/date reappears on the external screen you can open the phone, go to messages and open them from there. Since they’ve already been pulled onto the phone and opened you won’t get charged to reopen them. My phone was purchased around July 2010 so if yours doesn’t work like this, giving you free messages, it means they must have found the software glitch and fixed it." Hope that helps.

**jimcpl** · 05-30-2011, 01:14 AM

ST Dog and BobbyLee,

Thanks for that info. I'll try what was suggested.

Jim

**jimates** · 05-30-2011, 01:42 AM

Tracfone is not the service provider, so they can't restrict any incoming service. Usually there is no cooperation from the provider to Tracfone users.

**Tirod** · 05-30-2011, 07:42 AM

Tracphone sells high profit minutes, but even at the .3 rate for text, the more you use, the more profit it makes. There's no point in blocking anything to the detriment of selling more minutes.

If there is an issue with texts, it's likely that specific phone is using a local carrier with inadequate coverage or equipment capacity. Tracphone leases ALL it's airtime and owns NOTHING. A quick check of the cell tower owners and locations in your locality might likely show more than 50% are owned by independents who invested the money to set them up - not Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile. Even they are leased.

Checking that map for Joplin, MO, strangely enough, the impact zone being largely suburban/urban mix and developed decades ago, there were very few towers involved. Although reception went down for a while, it was largely a lack of power and a huge surge in use that complicated things. Manhattan, NY suffers that on Friday nite when a few million people call in pizza orders getting off work.

**efparri** · 05-30-2011, 07:55 AM

Originally Posted by jimcpl

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knows if Tracfone would be able to block both incoming and outgoing text and email messages, if I ask?

FYI, this is on a new LG420G, on pay as you go (no monthly plan).

Thanks,
Jim

You can block outgoing messages yourself by not sending any. You can also enter invalid SMS settings to prevent messages from being sent.

**jimcpl** · 05-30-2011, 01:13 PM

Originally Posted by efparri

You can block outgoing messages yourself by not sending any. You can also enter invalid SMS settings to prevent messages from being sent.

efparri,

Can you explain how to do that (enter invalid SMS settings), with Tracfone and an LG420G phone?

Thanks,
Jim

**jimcpl** · 05-30-2011, 01:17 PM

Hi,

I guess that I didn't explain WHY I wanted to have this done

...

Basically, I was trying to be a little proactive.

I don't do any texting or email (or web) from any of my prepaid phones.

Awhile ago, when I got my first one, from Virgin Mobile, I was getting a bunch of "junk" text messages, from various what-looked-like sales-type stuff. I called VM, and they said they could block them, and while I still get some, it cut down on the volume a lot. So, I was hoping that TF could do the same, which I guess they can't (even tho VM is also not the real provider).

Thanks,
Jim

**millept** · 05-30-2011, 01:58 PM

Some phones will allow you to block a number as one of the options for dealing with a text message. At least this would prevent repeated junk messages from the same number. You can also reply "STOP" to the message and that usually gets you off that particular spam list.

**efparri** · 05-30-2011, 03:22 PM

The adverising message are not sent from wireless number. They use the EMail to SMS gateway to send text messages. No carrier would permit a wireless phone to be used for spam messages.

**millept** · 05-30-2011, 04:57 PM

Originally Posted by efparri

The adverising message are not sent from wireless number. They use the EMail to SMS gateway to send text messages. No carrier would permit a wireless phone to be used for spam messages.

On the advertising messages I've received, there has been a phone number from which they were sent. I replied with "STOP" to two of them, which appeared to work. After that I decided to save the pennies and I just block the numbers from which the texts are coming.

**BobbyLee** · 05-30-2011, 06:16 PM

jimcpl,
Still there? I have a little more info. YOU CAN BLOCK MESSAGES SENT TO YOUR PHONE'S EMAIL ADDRESS (i.e. ##########@txt.att.net) if you are on ATT's network. You have to register your Tracfone phone number on their other site (not through their normal system as they seem to be two different systems) and then you can go in and change settings to block emails sent to your phone, you still can't block text messages sent from other mobile numbers. Here is the link, be sure to bookmark it so you can go to the 'RIGHT' ATT site if you want to make changes in the future: http://mymessages.wireless.att.com/
After going to the site click on Register Now, enter your phone number, it will then send you a confirmation number via text for you to use on the web site. It does work, at least it does for me on my LG420G. That might cut down on some of the spam texts?

**jimcpl** · 05-30-2011, 07:57 PM

Originally Posted by BobbyLee

jimcpl,
Still there? I have a little more info. YOU CAN BLOCK MESSAGES SENT TO YOUR PHONE'S EMAIL ADDRESS (i.e. ##########@txt.att.net) if you are on ATT's network. You have to register your Tracfone phone number on their other site (not through their normal system as they seem to be two different systems) and then you can go in and change settings to block emails sent to your phone, you still can't block text messages sent from other mobile numbers. Here is the link, be sure to bookmark it so you can go to the 'RIGHT' ATT site if you want to make changes in the future: http://mymessages.wireless.att.com/
After going to the site click on Register Now, enter your phone number, it will then send you a confirmation number via text for you to use on the web site. It does work, at least it does for me on my LG420G. That might cut down on some of the spam texts?

BobbyLee,

Thanks! I just registered there, and setup the blocking.

Thanks again,
Jim

P.S. You all should post this info as some kind of sticky. It seems like it'd be very useful for some folks (if it isn't already somewhere).

**jimcpl** · 05-30-2011, 07:58 PM

Originally Posted by millept

On the advertising messages I've received, there has been a phone number from which they were sent. I replied with "STOP" to two of them, which appeared to work. After that I decided to save the pennies and I just block the numbers from which the texts are coming.

Hi,

I've always refrained from actually replying to those text messages, because it seems to me that it provides the sender with a confirmation that it's a live number. Maybe that was just my misunderstanding...

Jim