I have an older LG501c TracFone. Occasionally I will receive a text message and when I click to view I see the sender name and a word or two. I...

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Hello Peggy I'm happy to assist you here.

Do you personally know the sender? 

Please let me know by typing a response at the top and clicking on send response

That's OK. Do you personally know the sender? 

Is it sender specific ? or do you encounter that problem to different senders too?  

OK. Does it sometimes work OK or consistent? 

These are called junk messages that not succesfully received by your tracfone service over the air. What I would recommend is for you not to open the blank messages for you not to get charge. There's nothing wrong with your phone. The problem lies on the  text service. Text messaging service is assessed a per-message fee for sending and opening received messages. Blocking text messages on your phone saves you from paying unwanted fees on your mobile account if you are getting junk /icomplete messages. After you block text messaging service with TracFone, you will not be able to send or receive any text messages.

Yes. Ignore and do not open the text message.  

Is there anything else? 

It's either a newtork error  or the sender may have set or using a different messaging app that is not working for tracfones. 

the best option they can provide most of the time is changing the SIM card but as you've said some messages works OK so changing the sim will not be a good option if others are working OK.  

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