| A word in your ear |
| Monday, 30 June 2003 | |
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Direct Marketing International: July 2003 - Are unsolicited mobile phone marketing messages spam or scam. Pamir Gelenbe reports. The premium rate regulatory body, ICSTIS, recently
reported that complaints about text scams are rocketing, with an
eight-fold rise in objections to services promoted by text message,
conning users into phoning premium numbers. Does this mean that we are
about to become the victims of a deluge of mobile spam, or do we need
to put this development into context? Innocent but annoying Unsolicited communication, whether junk mail through the post, email or via mobile is largely advertising or marketing led messages - comparatively annoying. A scam is usually unsolicited, but often it is the level of offence it causes, that often leads them to be identified and stopped. Spam unfortunately doesn't provoke quite the same level of offence from consumers (because it does not directly rip them off). Messages informing the recipient: 'Congratulations! You've won £1000! Call this number now to receive your prize,' fit into the latter (scam) category: not only were they unsolicited, but they also misleading ask recipients to dial a premiun rate line for the chance to win the case. Spam is however, harder for governing bodies to detect, because the offence it causes the recipient does not always lead to complaints. This might lead one to question how effectively we can identify and prevent spammers? Major issue I am a firm believer mobile spam will not be a major issue in the future. In most cases, the return on investment for mobile spam makes it un-economical. While email is virtually free to send, each SMS costs marketers several pence. As a result, the low response rates likely to come from unsolicited campaigns are OK with email, given it doesn't cost anything to send in the first place, but will ruin a text message spammer. As long as text messaging remains a significant cost to marketers, they are likely to take a more strategic and thoughtful approach to their use of the medium. Another reason why mobile spam isn't likely to reach epademic proportions is a technical one. The internet, or 'web', allowing anyone to set-up shop, say, offshore, and surreptitiousy send messages to consumers in the UK or elsewhere, without being traced or recognised. This makes it an ideal territory for spammers, who can not only send free messages, but also make their activity very difficult to intercept and stop. SMS, on the other hand, relies on a centralised system controlled by a handful of network operators. This makes it much more difficult for spammers to operate under cover, and extremely easy for network operators to cut them off, particularly since network operators are the first losers of mobile spam since the victim often complain to their newtork operators. In sharp contrast to Europe, mobile spam is a huge problem in Japan. Nine out of every 10 messages carred by NTT DoCoMo (Japan's main network operator) are believed to be spam. Senders pay nothing The Key reason for this is that Japan has a 'recipient-pay' model for text message billing. This means that recipients of messages pay to receive them, while the senders pay nothing. In addition, NTT DoCoMo has created an 'email gateway' allowing anyone to send a text message to one of their subsribers by sending an email. The latter allowed the email spammers to send unsolicited messages to mobile subscribers using simple and undetectable email technology. Spam has become so problematic for NTT DoCoMo, it recently introduced a fixed rebate paid back monthly to its subscribers to account for the cost of spam, as recipients pay for every spam message they receive! While we shouldn't underestimate the damage that can be caused by cowboys, I believe we should see them for what they are - unimaginative and relatively isolated scams. If spam were to take off on mobile phones, it would have done so a long time ago, since mobile penetration overtook Internet penetration three years ago. Another factor which will limit the amount of mobile spam is the impending EU Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communication. Becoming UK law in October this year, the directive call for all electronic communication to be on an 'opt-in' basis and stands in contrast with existing laws around direct mail, which can be sent out on an opt-out basis. Good deterrent While this directive will act as a good deterrent for mobile spammers, I believe the overriding factor preventing the prevalence of mobile spam is still an economical one. When I get the first SMS trying to sell me Viagra, phd diplomas or hair loss treatment, I'll eat my hat! © Copyright Flytxt Ltd 2006. Unauthorized use of any content constitutes a material breach. |
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