Tremendous progress in telecommunication industry has brought us to a place where everyone is connected. If you see around yourself almost everyone is carrying a mobile. In some places in the world the mobile density has increased so much that number of mobiles is more than the number of people in area. Telcos are making good money with not just calls and data plan but also with text messages. This eventually led to so much competition that now there are a lot of different MASS SMS packages available from Ufone, Warid, Mobilink, Telenor leaving the world at your thumbs range.

All this fun stuff was mainly intended for teenagers but things really got out of hands. This SMS packages frenzy eventually led to a new marketing opportunity which was previously ignored till the time. Delivering ads to mobile is considered to be the future of advertisement many companies and startups have been started on it in the past (I’ll talk about it later in some other post) and things are also progressing in a country like Pakistan where a lot of awareness is yet to be created.

All these opportunities have raised threats of mis-usage. In fact it has already started. Did you notice that you have been getting random messages from unknown numbers, revealing the most important information you ever wanted like, where to buy a UPS, where the best Generators in the city are, some new shop is selling clothes only of your size and they will be wasted if you don’t buy them and if you like swimming in Lahore canal we sell tubes so that you don’t drown.

So how do they do it? Thats what i was searching for sometime back and I finally got an answer when on a random night (when I was in a GT) I got a SMS from an unknown number having information on how to advertise to people on sms. I called that number and engaged him in a conversation, pretending to be a customer. Long story short it turned out that he was trying to sell a software which had a pre-fed database of Phone numbers (as per him all the phone numbers in Pakistan, city-wise) and all we need is to buy it, install, connect a mobile to computer, select numbers and we are good to go. Another option was that if I don’t want to buy it I can buy this service from him and select to send messages through there infrastructure. Upon making him realize that this is spam and is illegal he was like “Sir, Pakistan mai loogon nay aisay he batein banaye howe hain”. My answer was well spam is an issue worldwide so he is wrong. For few weeks he kept calling on my cell but I finally shut him off by saying that I have some concerns about legality of this thing .

Customer Story I
Customer: I keep on getting these stupid messages from different numbers.
CS Rep: Sir would you tell me the number?
Customer: yeah sure its 0333…..
CS Rep: Sir… Sir… Sir… sorry to interrupt but thats a Ufone number.
Customer: so… :S
CS Rep: We can’t take complaints against Ufone number.
Customer: so?
CS Rep: This is Warid customer support …
Customer: and i am a customer of?
CS Rep: Warid.
Customer: so shouldn’t I be complaining to you?
CS Rep: No sir you have to complain to Ufone Support .
Customer: argghhhh!!!! (Hangs up)

…… AoA sir this is Ufone support .. I am bla bla bla…….
Customer: I am getting messages from this number.
CS Rep: Sir, kindly tell me your number.
Customer: 0321….
CS Rep: Sorry sir you are not our customer how can we take your complaint.
Customer: :O *&%$@)@$*(^@$

Customer Story II
Customer: I got Spam advertisement from a number.
CS Rep: Sir, you have to get at least 3 messages from this number then we will log your complaint.
Customer: What the hell, didn’t you listen properly. This is unwanted advertisement, the guy must be sending this to thousands of people.
CS Rep: Sir i told you there is no such rule.
Customer: Don’t you have any brain? What kind of people make policies at your end?
CS Rep: *repeated same text from his instruction book*
Customer: *hangs up*

Solution:-

1. New rules which are Spam specific (3 SMS rule is for normal mis-usage and has nothing to do with Spam).
2. A proper mechanism for cross career complaints (These people mainly take advantage by exploiting this loophole).
3. Whenever you get such message make a complaint about it, if not to your Service provider then at least to PTA.
4. When you get this messag, send 5-6 miscalls to the source number (thats a trick that sometimes causes an interruption in Spam sending process)

I wrote an email to PTA and Warid Customer Service, which contained some of these points. Warid Customer Support called me and just made an apology and tried to justify the fact that they can’t take action. Well I told them not to bother me if they don’t have anything better to say. Lets see how PTA responds to it(if they do, because recently they have not been upto the standard they used to). If you want to contribute to this then at least write a complaint when you get a unwanted advertisement.

Related posts:

1. Warid introduces Micro Sim for iPhone and iPad