Even as the federal government has worked to crack down on robocalls, scam texts have boomed in recent years, and that has captured growing attention inside the Federal Communications Commission. More than 47 billion spam texts have been sent so far in 2021, up 55% from the year before, according to an August report from RoboKiller, a spam-blocking company. In 2020, the report estimates, scam texts cost Americans $86 million. The FCC received roughly 14,000 complaints about unwanted text messages in 2020, up 146% from the year before. Already in 2021, the commission has received nearly 10,000 complaints about scam texts.