I was prompted by a BBC online article last month which stated that Government officials have now started carrying out raids on premises where they think SPAM texts are being sent from- click here to read more. It is clearly becoming something that is being clamped down on which is fantabulous news as SPAM texts are not only a minor irritation but also a menace that catches out even the savviest of mobile users. To help you avoid being targeted, I wanted to find out more and gain a better understanding of your feelings on spam.
Here's the reassuring part: giffgaff DOES NOT SELL PERSONAL DATA. Ever.
Remember SPAM is unsolicited; this does not include communications from a company that you have opted in to - for example, you may have entered into a competition, ticked a box to opt-in to marketing and found yourself targeted. Maybe you remember the days of the Crazy Frog ring tone? Shudder.
However, the illegal SPAM is where you guys are most affected. 91% of you have received a SPAM at least once and 26% of you had received one in the last week. By far, the majority of you expressed a real concern about your personal data being obtained.
Spammers target you randomly. They send the same message to thousands and thousands of numbers. How many spam text message do you think get sent per day?
A: 1,000,000?
B: 4,000,000?
C: 8,000,000?
Horrid, spammy companies depend on bots to generate these messages and then rely on the odd person to actually reply…
The silver lining is that - you shouldn’t feel frightened or victimised when you receive SPAM as the reality is that your number has fallen between a bot going about it’s job…for example:
07000000000 -> 07999999999
So, here are 5 great pointers of how to deal with SPAM. Prevention Is Better Than Cure
First, breathe….and trust that as a company, we abide by the Data Protection Act- you can read more about this here. This SPAM text is nothing to do with giffgaff - we promise. Data Protection protects you from receiving information that you didn’t give permission to receive. I recommend that in order to really cull the number of unsolicited texts you receive, you should:
- Never reply. Some spammers use text messages to cleanse lists.
- Opt-out of 3rd party marketing which will take you off these companies’ radars. You can do this by emailing a company and asking to be taken of their marketing system.
- You have to actively manage your own personal data - this might sound obvious, but so many of us hand out our mobile numbers, DOB, post codes and so forth just to enter a competition or be sent further info on an intriguing product for example…
- Thirdly, you can inform your network provider and they should help you - at giffgaff we provide a free number change for those dealing with harrassement.
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Complain to the Information Commissioner (ICO). All complaints will be investigated by the ICO. Offenders can be punished with fines....OOoo.
57% of you didn’t know that SPAM texting at illegal. But here at giffgaff HQ we do Oh yes, we have a whole fraud and security department who are dedicated to combating any spammers. We’re checking right round the clock to see if there are any members sending obscene amounts of messages a day with little or no replies. giffgaff proactively monitors text usage to protect you.
The 'emotion bit' re.SPAM messages: How you feel.
45% of people voted that they are ‘extremely concerned’ about their personal information being sold by their network operator
35% of people are 'extremely concerned' about being charged for receiving these SPAM messages
53% of people asked voted that they were 'extremely concerned' about their network operator illegally obtaining their personal data.
Each network has a different ‘spam report’ number that you will need to forward your spam texts to. Go on and take a look at this list of numbers below and pass on them on to friends and family so that we can do our bit to fight SPAM.
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giffgaff, T Mobile, o2 and Orange |
7726
|
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Vodaphone |
87726 |
|
Three |
37726 |
WHERE DO YOU giffgaffers PLACE THE BLAME...?
65% of you stated that the government weren’t doing enough.
40% of you say that the Police aren’t responsible for this issue.
Always remember that giffgaff will NEVER sell on any personal information, and never ever will.
That’s all for now folks ;-) Thanks again for taking part in my survey. I hope my 5 pointers to avoid nasty SPAM will help you.
Cheers,
Daisy