Huge spike in SMS pests from businesses and scammers

INCREASING numbers of South Australians are being bombarded with unsolicited text messages from businesses and scammers. But there are ways to combat this menace.

• Even if you’re single, don’t click the link in that weird text message

INCREASING numbers of South Australians are being bombarded with unsolicited text messages by businesses trying to spruik goods and scammers trying to rip people off.

The growth in the text message spam has prompted calls from Australia’s peak communications consumer organisation for phone users to report any unsolicited and unwanted text messages.

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network Teresa Corbin told the Sunday Mail there has been a marked increase in complaints across Australia about SMS spam — rising from 19,923 in 2016-17 to 53,989 in the current financial year.

Ms Corbin said there are a number of things South Australians should do if they are getting bombarded with spam SMS.

“If you are receiving repetitive messages from the same number, report them to the ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) and block the number,” she said.

“Keep all the messages you receive and include them in your complaint.

There has been a marked increase in complaints across Australia about SMS spam — rising from 19,923 in 2016-17 to 53,989 in the current financial year.

“It’s important to know that there are certain exemptions in the Spam Act, and that commercial electronic messages can be sent to consumers who have given express or implied consent to receiving them.

“In this case the messages are not ‘unsolicited’ but must still include an unsubscribe or opt-out.”

Ms Corbin said a sharp increase in complaints last year could be, in part, attributed to text messages related to last year’s marriage equality survey that were not covered in the Spam Act.

However, figures from ACMA show that the federal agency received 849,928 complaints about spam (including internet and SMS) last financial year.

The complaints represent a 59 per cent increase and show complaints were on the rise well before the marriage equality plebiscite.

An ACMA spokesman told the Sunday Mail customer complaints play a vital role in fixing the issue of spam.

“Complaints and reports are valuable and inform the ACMA’s compliance and enforcement activities,” the spokesman said.

“As a recent example, we recently took enforcement action against TPG for SMS spam breaches that resulted in a $360,000 penalty.”

Ms Corbin said people can reply “STOP” to any unsolicited SMS.

“Keep the message and make a complaint to the ACMA’s spam complaints service,” she said.

“You can do this by forwarding the message to 0429 999 888.”

HOW TO RECOGNISE TROUBLE

What is spam?

Spam is the common term for electronic ‘junk mail’-unwanted messages sent to your email account or mobile phone. Under Australian law, spam is defined as ‘unsolicited commercial electronic messaging’.

Some spam promotes a product or invites you to visit a website; other spam tries to trick you into investing in fraudulent schemes, or revealing your bank account or credit card details.

How can I tell if it’s spam?

Any commercial message sent to you by email or to your mobile phone that does not meet the following conditions is breaking Australia’s spam laws:

Consent: it must be sent with your consent.

Identify: it must contain accurate information about the person or organisation that authorised the sending of the message.

Unsubscribe: it must contain a functional ‘unsubscribe’ facility to allow you to opt out from receiving messages from that source. Your request must be honoured within five working days.

If an SMS message seems dubious, make a complaint

If you have received a commercial message to your mobile phone and you:

do not know how the message sender got your mobile telephone number;

cannot identify who the message sender is; cannot see a way to unsubscribe from receiving the message, e.g. an instruction to reply ‘STOP’ or ‘UNSUB’; or

have already tried to unsubscribe from receiving messages from this sender, but they have not stopped; you can make a complaint to the ACMA.

■ Source — Australian Communications and Media Authority