That seems unlikely when I get a response that says “You have been unsubscribed - Bob Loblaw for Senate” or whatever. I suppose that could be pre programmed.

For which countries is this true?

Definitely not France. The STOP message is ignored. They also created a global “block” list that you can subscribe to. This list is handled by an advertising company…

French mobile networks are having a bit of a clampdown at the moment. My employer sends SMS to France and they've been absolutely on the warpath if they think you're not respecting STOP and CONTACT messages.

What is CONTACT?

Its true in the US; its mandated by law that they comply.

Wait. Really? I had no idea this is true. You're saying there's a US law that means replying STOP is intercepted by verizon/T-mobile/etc. and the sender never has to see it?

While it's true that they must comply with the STOP message, I'm not finding any proof that it must be intercepted before reaching the business.

https://www.cullenllp.com/blog/fcc-adopts-new-tcpa-opt-out-r...

This is not correct, I've worked with an app that had to handle SMS opt-out and we received the STOP message.

This -- Stop is required action, but its passed to the vendor for management -- non-compliance is punishable by loss of shortcode/carrier acceptance.

Things may have changed since, but used to work sending 8m sms messages before breakfast every day to people who subscribed to news, sports scores, etc.

I don't know if it's true either. I often get confirmations from the same number that I want to stop.

If it is sent as an actual SMS, yes. Not if it goes through Apple messages or whatever.

And if I send a reply to my friend with just the text "stop" - that does it, right? I mean part of normal conversation, not to indicate that they should stop messaging me. Or should I remember that it's the special phrase?

For what it's worth, I've sent a "stop" before and gotten this:

> NETWORK MSG: You replied with the word "stop" which blocks all texts sent from this number. Text back "unstop" or "start" to receive messages again.

I assumed it was from my carrier (T-Mobile in the US), but now I'm wondering, as I have gotten different replies from other numbers. Maybe it came from the sender's provider? Or is just misleading.

Yes, this is T-mobile’s message.

That's not true at least in the USA on my carrier. Some spammers just ignore the STOP and continue messaging anyways.

Every spam message I get comes from a different number