Mobile Spam

First it was junk mail clogging up our mail boxes, then came email spam and with it advertisements shouting at us to enlarge various parts of our anatomy and details of how to make $1million in two weeks. Now we have mobile spam - unsolicited text messages on our mobile phones exhorting us to visit a clothing sale, encouraging us to visit a particular online store or inviting us to enter competitions from a varieyt of commercial enterprises.

I do not want this on my cellphone! I want the freedom to decide what advertisements to receive via SMS and I want the option of not receiving further mobile communications from a company.

At the recent Mobile Industry Briefing held in Sandton on Thursday 17 May, Brendan Hughes, senior associate of the Michalsons Attorneys, was quoted as saying the following :

“Even though there is no specific legislation that currently deals with this issue in South Africa, the provisions of data protection mechanisms can be found in the Constitution (section 14d), the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECT Act – section 45 and 89), the National Credit Act (section 68 and 74(6)) and the Industry code of conduct”

So without the legalese, what does this mean for us as consumer and business owner?

The following applies :

1) If you send unsolicited SMS's to consumers you must give them an option to cancel their subscription to your mailing list.
2) On request, you have to be able to provide particulars of where you sourced the particular consumer's communication details.
3) You may not give out any confidential information of any person whose details you have procured other than to an authorised party.
4) A customer has the right to demand that their cellphone number be removed from your database. If you do not comply with the consumer's request to stop receiving mobile communications, you could be fined or receive a jail term not exceeding 12 months.

Between September 2005 and February 2007 1077 complaints regarding mobile spam were received by Wireless Application Service Provider Association (WASPA) This resulted in 67 fines totaling R1,5 million.

Small businesses should not be taking chances with this form of communication. Ensure that you have a method of collecting customers' information in an honest, ethical manner and ensure that any communications with customers gives them an 'opt-out' option.

Need help identifying the owner of a commercial SMS or short code? Go to SMSCode and enter the offending details.