Who I have the same questioned this topic

I only recently began receiving multimedia text (?) messages on my old, old, old basic cell phone.  Then I got my bill, and am being charged $0.25 each for them (compared to $0.10 for plain text messages).  My volume is so low, that $0.10 makes sense for me, but these new multimedia text messages are aggravating because they aren't even really multimedia -- they're just text messages that are being e-mailed to me and at least one other number/address, and so somehow they're being turned into multimedia messages.

Can I somehow just not accept them?  Not download them (and then not be charged)?  I can't get my friends who are sending them to me to understand the implications of what they are doing so that they'll stop, so I need to be able to do something on my end so that I'm not charged for each one they send me.

(And WHY is Verizon turning these text messages into multimedia messages anyway, then they're NOT?!)

Help!