How to block text message spam- Mobile Marketing & SPAM

Monday, October 15, 2007

How to block text message spam

Little Miss Moneybags: Spam text messages

Great little article by a very savvy young lady in New York on how to combat the issues with mobile SPAM in the US ( sorry folks - no help for no US mobile SPAM from this article )

E-mail SPAM delivered as text messages.

The underlying point that I would like to make is that when you call your carrier ( AT&T, Verizon, Sprint ) make sure that you tell them you want to turn off messages sent as E-mail and delivered as SMS.

CAVEAT!: Be warned! When you do this you may stop messages that you want. You may not get messages from airlines telling you about gate changes - and you may not get appointment reminders from your dentist or hairdresser - and you may not get updates on when the plumber is going to be coming to your house. All of these businesses rely on E-mail to SMS delivery.

What you really want is a web page where you can "white-list" the people who can send you E-mail and have it delivered as SMS. Maybe that's your partner or your mother - maybe that's a service person. Be default - no one can send you these messages.

How to ask to stop the SPAM:

Some customer care people are likely to understand what you are asking than others -- so if you need help making your point - tell them that you want to stop messages sent to an address like ( assuming you are on Cingular ): number@cingularme.com

Wikipedia has a nice SMS Gateway article which tells all! From here you can see a list of all E-mail to SMS gateways as well as some websites where you can send SMS messages. In general, websites are tougher for a spammer to use.

Stopping Spam from a short code

If you get a message from a short code ( that would be a 4 - 5 - or 6 digit number ) then you have probably chosen to opt-in to some form of service (like ringtones) or entered a contest (like American Idol). If you want to find out who is sending you those messages - Check the Short Code Reigstry here.

Once you know who is sending you the messages then you can contact them and ask them to stop. You should also be able to reply to these messages with QUIT or STOP and the service provider is obliged to stop.

SPAM from the mobile phone provider...

It may not be surprising to know that the majority of what consumers consider SPAM is actually sent by the carriers themselves. Consumers will call anything they decide they don't want SPAM - whether or not the sender can pull an opt-in permission out of the hat or not. The amount of TRUE SPAM is actually pretty low these days when you take out the e-mail to SMS gateway SPAM. Call you carrier and tell them to that you want to opt-out of any and all marketing messages - that will help!

Crack - I mean Blackberry SPAM

Here is an article from a man who has a very detailed solution to ensure the maximum effectiveness as a road warrior who depends on mobile Email.

And last - but by no means least - We are heading into an election year. Be very wary of giving your mobile phone number to anyone even remotely connected to politics or you'll be getting a text messages like there isn't any tomorrow. Political SPAM is exempt from CAN-SPAM ( which is largely a piece of legislation to give people guidelines on how they CAN SPAM you legally - USELESS! ).

If you find this useful - please send the link to the article along to others. If you know of any other helpful tricks - feel free to pass them along and I'll update the article. In general - let me know your thoughts!

2 Comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel I need to share this information.

I'm a network administrator at a large company. Our employees all have blackberrires. I noticed an extreem increase in text message usage within the last month, so I called up our Wireless provider(T-mobile) and asked about getting text messaging shut off. They pretty much said that this was not an option. I felt a little anrgy about this and decided to do something. I found a simple way to remove the SMS programming off of a Blackberry. Using a program called "javaloader.exe" found in the Blackberry JDE that can be downloaded from the blackberry website. By using the command "javaloader -u erase -f net_rim_bb_sms" this removes the blackberries ability to handle SMS messaging. This works with any cellphone provider. I will say, that I have not yet checked the bill to see if we are still being charged for incoming text messages, but this does stop any user from having the ability to send them. I haven't found anything on the net about this process, so I hope this helps someone.

9:03 PM

Anonymous said...

Please try this at your own risk and backup your device first, as I did run across some issues with a few phones.

10:30 PM

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A few words about why we're here

Since consumers first started to use SMS marketers have had the idea of text message marekting or marketing sms - also known as mobile marketing. And since that time marketing sms messages have grown and changed and new technology like bluetooth marketing, marketing bluetooth style to phones in close proximity to an advertisers.

And since the e-mail spam scourge took over the media, people have worried that there will be mobile phone spam. Spam is just another way of saying that advertisers send unsolicited text message marketing, marketing sms, bluetooth marketing or any other form of mobile marketing - it's mobile phone spam. There are even guides on how to spam phone s.

Consumer Preference is about permission based marketing, permission marketing solution. If, as an advertiser you can execute permission based marketing campaigns then you can certainly find ways to benefit from mobile marketing. And permission starts with understanding the consumer marketing preference. If you can understand consumer marketing preference, then you can execute permission based marketing. And permission marketing is not mobile phone spam.

There are many mobile marketing company listings that can be found on the Internet - and most mobile marketing company websites will tell you how they focus on permission marketing. Make sure that the one you partner with does more than tell you about it on the website. Opt-in marketing starts with your traditional marketing soliciting for permission.

Yes - Mobile marketing starts with traditional marketing - print, web, radio, television - all of the old standards. Because before you can send the first message to a consumer, you must obtain their permission... and that means that you understand consumer marketing prefernce.

Please enjoy reading consumer-preference.com - and if you feel that there is a point I'm making you'd like to share - then put a link to it from your own site. And always feel free to leave comments!

Troy Norcross

About Me

Name: Troy Norcross

Location: London, United Kingdom

I believe very strongly that consumers have a right to privacy. Just because it is getting harder to reach consumers doesn't mean that marketers should be (or need be) more devious or more forceful in their attempts to reach us. In fact, quite the opposite. Many of us are happy to be contacted with relevant, timely, meaningful offers. But it's going to be on our terms. No longer victims of aggressive marketing, we want to participate in the process with trusted brands and partners. Come and hang out with me here on Consumer Preference and learn how as a consumer you can have more control than you thought - and, if you're a marketer, how you can reach people in an effective and respectful way. You can reach me at the email link below.

Mobile Marketing & SPAM

Monday, October 15, 2007