Methods and systems are presented for filtering spam MAP SMS messages in an SS7 network, including mobile originated and mobile terminated MAP SMS messaging to mitigate spam-related traffic in the SS7 network. The system includes an anti-spam application (42) running on one or more network servers (40) that receives the MAP messages before routing to any SMSC or MSC, and classify these as spam or good. The good MAP SMS messages are then provided to the corresponding destinations by appropriate SMSC or MSC in the SS7 network, while the spam MAP SMS messages are not delivered to the SMSC.