How To Stop Facebook Messenger Spam From Reaching You

Facebook Messenger is one of the most popular chat apps today, being a close connection to Facebook. Any texting app that is popular is going to be a magnet for spammers. You might in fact be one of the many users who have to deal with a lot of Facebook Messenger spam. You don’t have to suffer through loads of annoying messages, though; there are a few simple steps you can take to control and minimize how much Messenger spam reaches you.

Where Facebook Messenger Spam Can Appear

Facebook Messenger hides spam messages from the user by default. So, you are commonly protected from unwanted messages. Facebook redirects spam to a separate folder called Message Requests instead of them arriving in your main messaging inbox.

• To see your message requests and your spam on the desktop,
• Start Facebook in a browser and
• Click the Chats icon at the top of the page.
• Then tap the square See all in Messenger button at the top of the Chats pane.
• At the top of the chat list,
• Tap the three-dot menu and choose Message requests
• Finally, you can switch between you may know and Spam tabs to see all the message requests waiting for you.

How To Identify Facebook Messenger Spam

Many (if not most) of your message requests are going to be spam if you have never changed your Facebook Messenger default privacy settings. Here are some of the biggest points to let you know messages are spam:

The Message Has Terrible Grammar.
If you have trouble following the content of a message, consider it spam.
The Message Is Trying To Sell You Something.
If the message includes any sort of sales pitch, it’s almost certainly spam.
The Message Includes External Links
Many spam messages are trying to drive traffic to websites.

How To Stop Facebook Messenger Spam On The Facebook Website

1. Start Facebook in a browser and then click the account icon at the top of the webpage.
2. In the menu, choose Settings & privacy, then click Settings.
3. On the Settings page, click Privacy in the pane on the left.
4. On the Privacy Settings and Tools page, find the How You Get Message Requests section.
5. For each entry in this section, click Edit to configure the privacy you want. For example, by
   default messages from friends who have your phone number go directly to Chats, while people
   on Facebook who aren’t friends or friends of friends get sent to the Message requests folder.
   You can set how Messenger treats people with your phone number, friends or friends, others on

Facebook, and people on Instagram. If you want to eliminate virtually all spam, you can configure Others on Facebook and Accounts on Instagram to Don’t receive requests. Those requests will be discarded and you will never see them.

How To Stop Facebook Messenger Spam In The Messenger App

1. In the Messenger app on your phone, go to the Chats home page and tap your account icon at
   the top left of the page.
2. Tap Privacy & safety.
3. On the Privacy & safety page, in the Who can reach you section, tap Message delivery.
4. Tap each entry on this page to specify the privacy you want. For example, by default messages from friends who have your phone number go directly to Chats, while people on Facebook who aren’t friends or friends of friends get sent to the Message requests folder. You can set how Messenger treats people with your phone number, friends or friends, others on Facebook, and people on Instagram. If you want to eliminate virtually all spam, you can configure Others on Facebook and People On Instagram to Don’t receive requests — incoming requests will be discarded and you will never see them.