Dealing with SMS Spam
November 8th, 2005
Ireland has one of the highest mobile phone ownership rates in the world. Mobiles are with us more than any other piece of technology, and we have a more personal relationship with them than with any other piece of electronics. Studies have shown that this is one of the reasons people get particularly annoyed when they receive unsolicited commercial SMS messages. This SMS spam invades what we have learned to think of as a personal space. So what can we do to stop it?
You have a few options if you receive SMS spam. The easiest thing to do is to delete the message. However, this does not stop you from receiving more messages from the same source in the future. Nor does it stop the SMS spammer from bothering other phone users.
Tell Your Network
For a more effective remedy, you can forward it to your network. Except for 3 (who don’t currently offer the service), all the networks have a free-text number you can forward a spam SMS to. Files on the spammers are then collected and forwarded to RegTel and the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner.
Those numbers are:
O2: 50455
Vodafone: 50005
Meteor: 50002
Make a complaint yourself
RegTel
RegTel is a body set up to regulate premium phone and text services. The RegTel code of practice on SMS services says:
• All premium SMS/MMS Services must have prior approval from RegTel
• Service providers, or any person or company acting on their behalf, must not send ‘unsolicited’ (spam) text messages
• Consumers must have the right to ‘opt-in’ or ‘opt-out’ of any service. They must also be given information on how to unsubscribe free of charge. Under an EU Directive, consumers must not be have to pay, in order to unsubscribe from such a service.
• Service providers, dependent on the type of ‘opt-in’ service, must issue a regular ‘opt-out’ message.
• Premium SMS/MMS must carry the service provider’s mobile number.
• Where a service includes more than one message to complete the transaction, the total costs must be given.
• Where multiple messages are required to complete a service, the service provider must give the consumer the cost details in the following format: ‘€ 2 x 3’ or ‘EUR 2 x 3’. Promotional material for premium SMS/MMS must only relate to the authorised service.
• SMS “Chat”, “Flirt”, “Contact” & “Dating” services must adhere to the relevant components of the RegTel Code of Practice.
You should make a complaint within three months of receiving the SMS. After that, it is left to the Regulator’s discretion whether or not to investigate a complaint.
RegTel’s main sanctions are to disrupt or end a particular service provider’s activities, if they find there has been a breach. They can’t provide for compensation to the person who got the spam message, or fine the spammer.
The Data Protection Commissioner
The Data Protection Commissioner enforces the European and Irish laws which ensure that your personal information is only used in the manner which you intended.
If you receive a spam SMS and want to complain to the Data Protection Commissioner, your complaint should include as much of the following as possible.
• Your name and postal address (other contact details optional).
• A copy of any SMS messages you received.
• The date and time of receipt.
• Your number.
• The number from which the message was sent.
• A declaration that you have not consented to receiving such communications.
• A declaration that you have not been a customer of the sender or, if a customer, that you have instructed the sender not to send you SMS messages.
• A copy of any instruction given to the sender not to send SMS messages (or make calls) to you, if there was any.
• A statement that you wish to make a formal complaint.
• A statement that you will be willing to give evidence in court relating to the complaint.
• A statement that you will be willing to give a statement, if requested.
Appearing in court, if it gets that far, will not cost you anything other than your time. It is possible that a statement would be accepted instead of your personal attendance, so that not even your time would be affected.
The spam complaint can be emailed to:
Or posted to:
The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner
Block 6, The Irish Life Centre
Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1
The Data Protection Commissioner can prosecute spammers. The maximum fine is €3,000 per spam message sent. (Alas, no compensation is paid to the person who received the spam message). If even a small proportion of the spam messages sent in Ireland resulted in fines, it would quickly become uneconomical to send them, and they would die out.
Entry Filed under: Spam
31 Comments Add your own
1. Dick OBrien | November 9th, 2005 at 10:27 am
Most of my SMS spam comes from my own mobile provider!
2. Simon McGarr | November 9th, 2005 at 3:51 pm
You may opt out of that also by writing to them and saying you do not wish to receive their commercial information.
If you have a copy of your contract, should you have one, check to see if you ticked the box asking for same. If you did, you could point out that the data protection act is applicable to them as much as anyone else.
3. Dick OBrien | November 10th, 2005 at 2:23 pm
Figures. For a while I just used to reply with “stop spamming me”. Never worked.
4. Michele | November 21st, 2005 at 7:57 pm
It took them over a year to reply to my complaint about SMS spam and when they did they got my gender wrong
5. hugh o donnell | February 11th, 2006 at 8:15 pm
please block service messages to my mobile 0879768803
6. Patrick Tiernan | June 23rd, 2006 at 2:40 pm
Please stop Spam messages to me. 0876614509. i’m unable to unscribe to a service which costs 2 euro per message. i get up to five messages a week. its drivin me crazy.
7. KOS | October 26th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
thanks
8. Free SMS | November 1st, 2006 at 3:50 am
SMS spam feels like more of an invasion of privacy because we just havn’t been hit with it yet as hard as email spam (fortunately it costs the spammers on a per message basis, something that email spammers don’t have to worry about).
I rue the day we get a deluge of SMS spam, it drives me nuts, but Dick O’brian is quite right, most of my SMS spam is from my provider! (Vodafone if you were wondering
)
9. Brian Greene » voda&hellip | January 22nd, 2007 at 11:09 pm
[...] [update] 50005 is not data protection. its a vodafone number see digitalrights.ie on txt spam [...]
10. Digital Rights Ireland &r&hellip | January 24th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
[...] For full details please read the guidelines on making a complaint, or read our guidelines. [...]
11. Hinda | January 31st, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Been with Meteor for few months, immediately started getting spam mail, costing now I find, nearly 2E per text. Tried to stop it, would not let me unscribe as meteor told me to write. They even gave me the wrong telephone no. to contact Netsize who they say are sending the messages. Eventually I have stopped the textsbut have been billed for months for these messages. I want a refund, I never asked for these messages, nor did I want them. Same happened to a friend of mine. Her’s were sent to her through a competition line. Mine I have no idea how, other than I was on Meteor internet site to get FREE text messages they told me about , they say the give you 300 per month extra, which I still have not got either. Meteor are not willing to do a thing. Also been calling Netsize a U.K. company, who keep telling me they will call me back, nothing to date. Any ideas, it is not a matter of the money at this stage, just principle…..
12. christina | February 23rd, 2007 at 5:21 pm
I have had someone sending me text messages and charging it to my cell bill! I had a $30 charge on my bill this month! I tried calling the company to see how they got my number and to opt me out and it is all animated. I asked to be taken off but it doesn’t seem to make a difference. HELP!
13. Bruno Nicolai | March 3rd, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Surely there has to be a much more simple way of stopping shortcode sms being sent to your number. I’ve been charged over €16 per month by 57800 for more than a year and nothing i do seems to work. There has to be a crack down on this sort of thing…Irish consumers are being ripped-off!
14. cliona o reilly | March 18th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
my fone isnt working!
the screen is gone and i have broght it in to shops many times before but they will not do any think please contact me on help for this!i only got my fone at christmas and it broke 1 month later it is a desgrace!!!
15. Trish | April 2nd, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Does anyone else know about Netsize…they have been charging me and sending unsolicted sms and charging me through the roof. I have sent them the usual stop SMS but I want my money back…where are they based??
16. Max | July 17th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
“”Been with Meteor for few months, immediately started getting spam mail, costing now I find, nearly 2E per text. Tried to stop it, would not let me unscribe as meteor told me to write. They even gave me the wrong telephone no. to contact Netsize who they say are sending the messages. Eventually I have stopped the textsbut have been billed for months for these messages. I want a refund, I never asked for these messages, nor did I want them. Same happened to a friend of mine. Her’s were sent to her through a competition line. Mine I have no idea how, other than I was on Meteor internet site to get FREE text messages they told me about , they say the give you 300 per month extra, which I still have not got either. Meteor are not willing to do a thing. Also been calling Netsize a U.K. company, who keep telling me they will call me back, nothing to date. Any ideas, it is not a matter of the money at this stage, just principle….. “”
If you started receiving premuim SMS messages immediately after acquiring a new number, chances are that the sim card for the number wasn’t ‘recycled’ properly. The person who owned your number previously may have subscribed to the netsize service but its up the the phone company to make sure that all such services are stopped before they reissue the number. If this is the case, all liability is with Meteor.
17. max | July 17th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Also,
If you ever have to call Regtel to get unsubscribed to a service, ask the operator specfically to make sure your number is removed from the company’s database completely.
If you just unsubscribe the company may decide to start texting you at a later date – which is illegal 90% of the time but often happens.
18. Dave | September 11th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
ok, i know this is a late reply but i had to address this post
“Mine I have no idea how, other than I was on Meteor internet site to get FREE text messages they told me about , they say the give you 300 per month extra, which I still have not got either.”
You get 300 free text messages TO SEND ONLINE FROM THE METEOR WEBSITE. Idiot.
19. paul frasco | October 16th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
I had a problem with a 57582 number.I’m with vodaphone and they were rude and finally got the regtel number off them(why couldn’t they give me this in te first 5 min’s?). I found out it was netsize that had ripped me off.I then cancelled my account with vodaphone as i never want to deal with them again and when i’m in the UK next month I’m going into Netsize personally to get my 30 euro back.
I’m a film maker so I decided to do a short film on this for a mini-documentary
20. min | December 6th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
netsize ripped me off for 3months but the vodafone ireland has never inform me about the subscribing. I’ve never had text, ring or message, nothing form the scammer either vodafone. I assume the network providers are nothing but their partner.
21. min | December 6th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4075123.stm
22. Digital Rights Ireland &r&hellip | June 9th, 2008 at 8:45 am
[...] speak, this is simply Bluetooth spam – an unsolicited message sent to your mobile. Email and SMS spam is prohibited by Irish law, so you might wonder why this technique is allowed. If anything, the [...]
23. lidia | May 13th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
im getting texts from 57682, it charges me 2euro a message can you tell me how to stop it please and how to get my money back.
24. anthony byrne | June 4th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
i recieved 10 txt messages today which i was charged 10 euro.
I did not subscribe to any service,o2 said it was from a company called netsize.
The short number is 57581
Does anyone know how i can get refunded?
Should i contact Regtel?
25. jb | March 26th, 2010 at 10:25 am
I got crazy guy calling in Arabic and limited English for more than 6 hours in one day – evening till 2am at night. The guy used 2 phone numbers and kept calling me almost once in 20 minutes and total of his call was about 30 times including 2 messages I quoted below. He called me again in this morning before 9am.
يا معغن اناعو زك فى شغل متخليش و حده در عليم كلمنى ام تغضه”
ok“
+20117718273
“Hello, good night really i like your voice and i hope to hear u again and know more about u like ur name and how old u are? Good night and good dream with angel my name is ahmed and my number is 0117718273″
+20100793599
26. Mark | April 12th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Nice bit of info there. I received a text this morning saying “FreeMsg: Your PIN 4633. Enter this pin 2 get your result & to join the Wixawin IQ Service. 18+ only. To unsubscribe txt stop to 57582. €6/week. Info:wixawin.co”.
I never subscribed to any service like this and believe it to be a complete scam. I found contact info for the company in question at http://wixawin.com/ir/contact.html and emailed them at info.ir@wixawin.com demanding that they remove me from their database and demanding to know where they got my number from.
I then contacted comreg to complain and they put me in contact with regtel. I also contacted my service provider demanding i don’t get changed by them for anything and requested they block all messages from the number in question. I didn’t know there was a number i could forward the message onto with my service provider so thanks for that. I also emailed info@dataprotection.ie and now im looking for a European wide body to complain too, as im not too confident with regtel as i got a NDR back saying my email i sent was spam. That sort of stuff really gets under my skin.
27. Frustrated 02 customer | April 16th, 2010 at 11:02 am
BEWARE….
Even if you contact O2, they still send you messages. I contacted a Supervisor for the 3rd time today and have been re-assured that junk SMS from them will be a thing of the past!
Excellent bit of information on the site about what to do – if they send ONE more little txt of junk to me, I will be following the details you posted.
28. meteor customer | April 25th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
that 57582 got me as well, i just wanted to watch qa tv show and i completed a survey (I was stupid to do it i know) anywat I texted the STOP to their number and now every few minutes I get a text saying
“Free msg: Regarding your opt-out request, you are unsubscribed and will recieve no further messages. No further action needed”
Yeah right you show of b*sta*ds!!
they text me that every few minutes.
29. 02 customer | May 21st, 2010 at 9:22 am
I got the same message from 57582 “FreeMsg: … Wixawin IQ Service..To unsubscribe txt stop to 57582.”. Should I send the stop text or will that make things worse? Who exactly receives messages to 57582?
30. Mia | May 30th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
I had to change my phonenumber 2 years ago because of 57582 and seems i have to do it again,I have no idea where from they got my number again on this time
31. Laura Crowe | July 10th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
I got the same message from 57582 “FreeMsg: … Wixawin IQ Service..To unsubscribe txt stop to 57582.” I DEFINITELY DID NOT SUBSCRIBE. I never lend my company phone to anyone. I dont engage in meaningless surveys/games/ringtones rubbish etc. I manage our company mobile phones and actively campaign against this sort of thing. I have a web tool to show all charges on all of our company mobile phones in real time. I logged in and there is NO CHARGE for this text message having been sent to me. I reckon that if I was to respond to this insidious number I would start up a whole lot of text message subscription charges.
Needless to say come Monday I will be speaking with our O2 account manager about this matter. I will also be using the various tools available to me to see whether any other company mobile users were hit with the same thing during the weekend and taking appropriate action if they were.
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed