ITMS Spam Monitoring & Troubleshooting Guide

Keeping your text message delivery healthy is critical to avoid throttling, suspension, or termination by text vendors. This guide explains what spam is, how to monitor it, which tools to use, and how to respond when issues arise.

This article equips your team with:

• A summary report to monitor spam and delivery risk trends

• A deep-dive query for investigating blocked messages

• A practical spam protocol to troubleshoot and mitigate issues

• Guidance on interpreting vendor tracking statuses and text template categories

What Is Considered Spam?

Spam in SMS delivery refers to message behavior that carriers or aggregators flag as potentially abusive or non-compliant. Common triggers include:

• Consumers tapping “Report as Junk” in iMessage or Android.

• Carrier algorithm detection based on:

  • Message content (e.g., misusing “INFORMATION” as the category for debt-related content),

  • Message frequency,

  • Sender reputation.

• Feedback from third-party aggregators.

If flagged repeatedly, your vendor may:

• Throttle message delivery,

• Suspend messaging,

• Terminate messaging privileges entirely.

Vendor Tracking Statuses: What They Mean

See Text Message Vendor Tracking Status for more information.

Template Categories & Spam Risk

Carriers evaluate messages based on content and assigned category:

• INFORMATION: Use for non-debt related messages.

• OTHER: A high-risk bucket for uncategorized messages.

Use the correct category to avoid misclassification and spam flags.

See Understanding Text Categories for more information.

Tools to Monitor Spam Behavior

Use these features in ACE to monitor delivery success and flag potential spam trends.

SQL Designer

Use SQL Designer to generate reports to monitor spam-related issues.

Query 1: Weekly Spam & Blocked Message Summary

This query provides a weekly summary of text messages with delivery issues, grouped by vendor tracking status and message template category. It helps you monitor trends in spam or blocked messages over the past 30 days, allowing early identification of deliverability problems.

SELECT 
    l.vendor_tracking_status, 
    date_trunc('week', l.sent_date) AS week,
    COUNT(*) AS message_count,
    t.category AS template_category
FROM 
    txt_msg_log l
LEFT JOIN 
    txt_msg_template t ON l.txt_msg_template_id = t.txt_msg_template_id
WHERE 
    l.sent_date > current_date - INTERVAL '30 days'
    AND l.vendor_tracking_status IN (
        'SPAM', 
        'BLOCKED', 
        'CARRIER_BLOCKED', 
        'UNREACHABLE', 
        'TTL_EXPIRED', 
        'UNKNOWN'
    )
GROUP BY 
    l.vendor_tracking_status, 
    date_trunc('week', l.sent_date),
    t.category
ORDER BY 
    week DESC, 
    message_count DESC;

Query 2: Detailed Report- ITMS Blocked & Spam Messages

This query returns detailed information on individual messages flagged as spam or blocked for the current day. It includes the phone number, message content, and associated template details—useful for investigating specific failures and identifying problematic templates or patterns.

SELECT 
    l.phone_number,
    l.vendor_tracking_status,
    l.sent_date,
    t.category AS template_category,
    t.identifier AS template_identifier,
    l.msg AS message_text,
    t.body AS template_body
FROM 
    txt_msg_log l
LEFT JOIN 
    txt_msg_template t ON l.txt_msg_template_id = t.txt_msg_template_id
WHERE 
    l.sent_date::date = current_date
    AND l.vendor_tracking_status IN (
        'SPAM', 
        'BLOCKED', 
        'CARRIER_BLOCKED', 
        'UNREACHABLE', 
        'TTL_EXPIRED', 
        'UNKNOWN'
    )
ORDER BY 
    l.sent_date DESC;

Text Message Search

Enhance this view by adding columns for:

• Vendor Tracking Status – Displays results like DELIVERED, SPAM, BLOCKED, UNREACHABLE.

See: Text Message Vendor Tracking Status

Configure an Action Path

Use the onAfterTextUndeliverable trigger to configure action path workflow when a message fails with spam-related statuses like:

• SPAM

• UNREACHABLE

• BLOCKED

Actions you can configure:

• Mark the phone number as Do Not Contact

• Demote its contact priority (move out of Priority 1)

• Deactivate the number for texting

These actions reduce costs and help protect your sender reputation.

Spam Handling Protocol

Step 1: Investigate

1. Review Reports – Check for repetition or unusual content

2. Check Opt-In/Out/Help Flows – Ensure compliance messages are working

3. Inspect Variables in Messages – Watch for risky substitutions like collections, social security numbers, etc.

4. Audit Message Frequency – Ensure consumers aren’t overwhelmed by volume

Step 2: Remediate

• Content Variation

  • Rephrase templates using alternate language.

  • Validate new versions using ITMS Text Validation.

• Segment & Throttle

  • Break large campaigns into smaller batches.

  • Send gradually between 8am–9pm, pausing between jobs.

  • Monitor if spam levels drop after spacing out delivery.

Step 3: Escalate to InterProse (if needed)

If Step 2 did not reduce spam counts, contact InterProse Support for assistance. Our team will re-review the Step 2 protocol to ensure all recommended changes were applied.

Before escalating, it may help to send test text messages to internal phones across various carriers to check deliverability and identify carrier-specific issues.

If appropriate, InterProse can:

• Request a temporary spam block lift from the provider (note: Step 2 changes must be made first or the block will remain in place),

• Request a throughput increase to improve message delivery rates,

• Work with you to evaluate if a new phone number and/or new registration is needed or create a backup registration

What Is a Third-Party Aggregator?

A third-party aggregator is a service provider that connects your texting platform to mobile carriers like AT&T or Verizon. These aggregators:

• Route SMS traffic based on carrier rules,

• Perform content and compliance checks,

• Collect and report back delivery statuses, including spam or block flags.

Think of them as message gatekeepers between your software and the mobile carriers.

Final Reminders & Best Practices

• Always use Text Validation in ACE before sending.

• Rotate message language to prevent carrier filtering due to repetitive content patterns.

• For escalations, contact InterProse to evaluate options like:

  • AWS spam block removal,

  • Backup number registration.

See ITMS Text Message Compliance and Best Practices.

Don’t forget to consult with your legal or compliance team to ensure messaging aligns with industry regulations.

Related Articles

For step-by-step setup, troubleshooting tips, and best practices, explore the full ITMS Help Center Category.