Bob Sullivan, who writes for MSNBC’s The Red Tape, has been speaking out lately about issues affecting consumers in the cellular telephone industry, including unauthorized charges and text message spam.

His latest piece says about text spam “They are unwanted messages on what might be an unwanted service, but you may get stuck paying for them anyway. ”

“After years of trying, spammers have finally figured out how to crash the text message party. Cell phone text spam is much, much worse than e-mail spam, junk mail, or even telemarketing calls for one simple reason: Recipients have to pay for it.”

He says you might consider turning off your phone’s text messaging capabilities in order to prevent cell phone spam, but cautions that some carriers won’t even allow you to shut your telephone’s text message service off.

 Of course, you can always Report Unauthorized Cell Phone Bill Charges to your favorite class action attorneys.