Know if you get a text from a five or six-digit number instead of a full phone number, it is because you requested to receive texts. “Those are called short code messages,” Drake said.

The call and text message records of hundreds of millions of AT&T cellphone customers in mid-to-late 2022 were exposed in a massive data breach, the telecom company revealed Friday.

In an increasing number of cases, text messages appear to come from fake delivery agents posing as service messages from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).