New Virginia law lets you stop unwanted soliciting texts with one word

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Starting January 1, 2026, Virginia residents will have new power to stop unwanted text messages with a single word.

The Virginia Telephone Privacy Protection law takes effect January 1 and allows people to reply “STOP” or “UNSUBSCRIBE” to soliciting text messages. The sender must then stop messaging for at least 10 years.

“It’s long overdue for people to be able to unsubscribe or tell these text solicitors to stop texting them,” said Elizabeth Carter, Southeast Virginia Better Business Bureau accreditation services director. “It’s really good that this new law is coming into play.”

The new law sets parameters for calls and texts typically trying to sell something. Carter said she receives soliciting messages daily.

“I get them on a daily basis, and it’s maddening,” Carter said.

The new rules include time restrictions for soliciting calls and messages, which can only be sent between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Carter said legitimate businesses will likely follow the new requirements, but scammers may continue their practices.

“It’ll be adhered to hopefully by the legitimate businesses. But we know that these cyber criminals, they buy blocks of phone numbers, blocks and blocks of phone numbers. So it will continue,” Carter said.

Carter’s job includes protecting consumers from scammers by providing tools to identify legitimate businesses. She said the new law is an addition to that toolbox.

“For consumers to know that it’s probably a really good chance that whatever text message is continuing to get through to them, even if they keep, you know, unsubscribing, that it’s a scam. It’s a scam,” Carter said.

Jeff Schapiro with the UVA Center for Politics said the legislation addresses how technology has expanded commercial solicitation methods.

“As technology has accelerated, the means by which the commercial world can solicit us has accelerated. And there were similar restrictions, these so-called do not call lists that were adopted at the federal and state levels to limit those annoying calls on one’s landline,” Schapiro said.

Legislation of the sort has proven popular in Virginia’s General Assembly, Schapiro said.

“What I find interesting about this; it was a bipartisan bill. It also flew through the legislature,” Schapiro said.

State Sen. Creigh Deeds, one of the lawmakers who supported the law, said the texts are a persistent annoyance.

“You know, the texts come all the time. They’re very annoying. We’ve got to protect people from that kind of annoyance if we can,” Deeds said.

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