Just as spam clogs up e-mail inboxes, so unsolicited SMS marketing has become the new "problem child" among consumers, with any number of notices, special offers and adverts clogging up cellphone inboxes.
However, help is at hand with the creation of the SMS Code Web site by the Marketing Federation of SA (MFSA) in conjunction with MTN, Vodacom, Cell C and over 30 service providers and businesses.
The new site aims to provide users with the opportunity to identify which service provider has sent a commercial SMS; contact the service provider to ask to be unsubscribed from the sender`s list; and to report any unsolicited commercial SMSs.
"While cellphone users will not receive a direct response to reports made to the MFSA, their reports will either be forwarded to the correct service provider, or they will be collated and transmitted to the relevant network operator," says Rowan Brewer, CEO of Tutuka.com, a member of the MFSA`s e-business group.
"This would especially be the case if a number of complaints are received about a single sender, and something would obviously need to be done if too many people are unhappy about receiving a particular SMS."
He says the site works is as follows: if the user has subscribed to the SMS or has a commercial relationship - such as being an account-holder - with the sender, then the user must contact the sender directly and ask to be unsubscribed.
If there is an originating number in the message, it can be entered on the site and if a result is returned, the user can contact the service provider to be unsubscribed.
If there is no originating number, or a search for the originating number returns no result, then users may report the SMS directly to the MFSA.
"SMS marketing is a very valuable tool, but it is certainly prone to abuse and the aim of this new Web site is to stop the unethical abuse of this particular marketing strategy," states Brewer.
"The Web site actually provides a win-win solution to all concerned. On one hand, it affords cellular users the opportunity to identify and trace message originators, so that they can be unsubscribed if they so desire, while on the other, it protects network operators - who usually aren`t the originators of the SMS - from irate customers calling to be unsubscribed."
The SMS code site is run by the MFSA, which also acted as a neutral forum to draft an SMS Code of Practice last year in collaboration with MTN, Vodacom, Cell C and a number of service providers.
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