How To Fight The War On SMS Spam

No, Barnyard Menlyn, I don’t want to see “Super Troupers” and no “i-save” I don’t want to reduce my car and household insurance premiums. And who the hell is “WIZZIT” and why should I possibly want to buy airtime from them? Even the DA and Irasa have been harassing me over the last few days. I get that campaigning is important, but where did they get my number from? And another thing: I will not type “STOP” and pay you R5 for the privilege of ending your campaign of terror against me.

It seems that other people are suffering a similar fate and Waspa says it is taking this very seriously.  The head of its code of conduct committee, Russel Stromin, had the following to say in a statement yesterday:

Consumers receiving unwanted SMS marketing messages from companies that they have not directly supplied with their cellphone numbers should report the spammer to Waspa.

The association takes consumers’ rights to privacy very seriously and forbids its members from sending unsolicited messages to consumers whose numbers they have acquired through third-party databases.

He also said that a business needs “explicit consent” from you to send you messages.

We can also seek to remedy our plight in the new Consumer Protection Act. The act states that any company wanting to contact customers directly (harass them) has to check their numbers against a new national opt-out register called the “Do Not Call Registry” (DNCR), but this has yet to come into force. Then there is also the Direct Marketing Assoctiaton (DMA) who keeps a database of members (spammers). You can click to “opt-out”. So between these three, you may eventually be freed.

For now you can contact Waspa via its website or on 011 476 7710 and the DMA here. I will be doing this shortly.

[Source : SAPA via News24, Waspa, Direct Marketing Assoctiaton]