FOUR of the UK's largest mobile phone operators have launched a new service to report and prevent spam text messaging to customers.

The GSMA, a collective association of the networks, said that EE, O2, Three and Vodafone have signed up to the Spam Reporting Service, which will enable mobile phone users to report nuisance text messages by texting SPAM to 7726.

This information will then allow operators to analyse the origin and scale of attacks, leading them to the source in order to shut it down. Working in collaboration with the UK Information Commissioner's Office, mobile providers are already looking into how to expand the service to include nuisance calls.

GSMA CEO John Hoffman said: "The GSMA spam reporting service provides operators with the insight needed to address sophisticated message threats that could harm users."