Spam messages on Apple Watch but not on iPhone

Forums › Apple iOS and devices › Spam messages on Apple Watch but not on iPhone

Geektastic

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#302098 28-Oct-2022 12:46

I’m periodically getting spam on my watch but for some reason, not on my iPhone. It’s a problem I can’t find a useful solution to online so I thought I’d try here!

RunningMan

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#2989215 28-Oct-2022 12:48

It might be helpful to explain what app this is in.

freitasm

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#2989221 28-Oct-2022 13:04

Yes - is this watch on an eSIM? Is the spam coming as notifications or messages? What apps?

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davidcole

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#2989224 28-Oct-2022 13:13

Or are they notifications where the phone has them set to scheduled summary but watch gets all of them. My garmin watch does this

I’d have expected an Apple Watch though to replicate scheduled summary, or honour it on the watch as well.

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Geektastic

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#2989288 28-Oct-2022 16:50

They come in Messages.

They don’t show up in Messages on the phone. You can delete and report as junk but I can’t work out why they end up on the watch and not the phone.

All Apple Watches are esim I think.

lxsw20

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#2989305 28-Oct-2022 16:55

Your watch comes with apple phone support - they are very helpful.

RunningMan

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#2989316 28-Oct-2022 17:17

Geektastic: All Apple Watches are esim I think.

No they are not.

Again, some more information would be helpful. What is the sender listed as? What is the content? Are they addressed to you? Do you know the sender? Is it via imessage or SMS incoming?

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MadEngineer

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#2989324 28-Oct-2022 17:27

What kind of content is it? Courier parcel type spam or other?

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Geektastic

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#2989326 28-Oct-2022 17:41

Spoof conversations about fixing phones was the latest.

Geektastic

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#2989329 28-Oct-2022 17:45

RunningMan:
Geektastic: All Apple Watches are esim I think.

No they are not.

Again, some more information would be helpful. What is the sender listed as? What is the content? Are they addressed to you? Do you know the sender? Is it via imessage or SMS incoming?

I don’t know the sender. No not specifically addressed to me. I message.

It’s a relatively common occurrence - at least I found a lot of people who’d asked for solutions from support forums etc but nobody seemed to have an explanation or a way to stop it.

For example

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252745342

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#2989371 28-Oct-2022 20:39

Within the Messages app on the iPhone, make sure that you're looking at 'All Messages' as opposed to 'Known Senders'. The latter will filter out rubbish like this.

boosacnoodle

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#2989381 28-Oct-2022 21:12

Posting a screenshot would be helpful. You can enable screenshots by (on your iPhone) opening the Watch app, browse to General and scroll to Screenshots and switch the option to on. When you get the next spam message, press both buttons on the side of the watch. The images will be saved into the Photos app on your iPhone for later viewing.

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fearandloathing

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#2989391 28-Oct-2022 23:31

I believe the watch esim has its own number, so I suspect it’s spam going direct to that number.

RunningMan

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#2989419 29-Oct-2022 07:34

OP hasn't confirmed yet if this is a cellular watch with eSIM, but did say it was incoming as iMessage as opposed to SMS, so probably not SMS spam to an eSIM number.

Under settings->messages->send&receive you can config whether the cell number or icloud account are used to send and receive iMessages. Would be useful to know what is configured there.