Why Brits are Lucky When it Comes to SMS Spam
Worldwide, around 50% of the people who use SMS receive spam messages at least once a week. Worse, 28% say they are spammed every day!
Those numbers come from new research shared by eMarketer. Over 5,800 people were surveyed from Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Nigeria, South Africa, the US and the UK. A lucky 16% say they’ve never received an SMS spam message, and another 20% receives them only occasionally.
Digging Deeper
When looking deeper into the data, it turns out the UK has some of the lowest daily spam rates at 20%. Only the US and Germany are lower. That’s in stark contrast to India and Nigeria who have rates in excess of 35% for daily spam. And in Nigeria, 76% receive SMS spam at least once a week. Both those countries have issues with enforcement and reporting.
The UK, though, is unique among all the countries surveyed. It’s the only one where more people report spam than delete it. When asked what they usually do with spam messages, 55% of Brits said they report it. Another 36% say they just delete it. In every other country the majority of people just delete rather than report (except the US where the percentages are about equal to each other).
The report offers some explanation for this, by concluding that the UK “has a mature regulatory sector”. Reporting spam is easy in the UK, and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) takes its job very seriously.
Steve Eckersley, ICO’s head of enforcement, says, “There is nowhere to hide. If you break the rules we will find you and fine you.”
Active ICO
I’ve discussed ICO enforcements in past blogs. But since they never stop investigating claims, there is always more to add.
Last month, Carfinance247 was fined £30,000 for sending 65,000 unsolicited SMS messages. They employed a third party marketing firm and claimed they were told the individuals had all consented to receive the messages. But over 900 people complained about the messages. The ICO investigation revealed that the company had violated the regulations because they had not obtained consent properly.
This month, Rainbow (UK) Limited was fined £20,000 for sending 21,045 unsolicited SMS messages regarding car loans. The company also used a third party opt-in which did not properly give them permission for direct marketing. The interesting bit in this decision is that Rainbow initially sent 580,302 messages, but because of an error only around 20,000 were sent. They could have been responsible for a much larger fine had all their messages been sent.
In September 2016, the ICO made 8 enforcement actions according to their website. Not all of these were for SMS, but it shows how active they are in investigating and taking action on complaints. This is one of the main reasons SMS spam is so low in the UK.
How to Report
Though it appears most Brits already know how to report SMS spam, here’s a reminder. You can forward any spam message to 7726. This will provide the message and your complaint to the ICO. You can also contact them directly to submit a complaint.
On the ICO website, they do recommend you use the opt-out feature in SMS prior to filing a complaint. This usually is a word you send as a reply, for example STOP is commonly used. But if the company keeps contacting you, then you can forward the message as spam. Of course, if you never signed up in the first place, you may feel more inclined to report it than to ask them kindly to stop sending messages.
I’ve read that in India, people don’t even bother to look at their SMS messages anymore because the spam is so bad. People in the UK are lucky to have the regulations and enforcement in place so they aren’t hounded by SMS spam as often as other countries.
Related Articles
SMS and the Future of Sales and Marketing
Four years ago, reputable commentators in The Guardian were wondering if SMS - short message service or text messaging - had peaked in performance after a two-decade exponential rise. Here we look at the evidence which shows that SMS is not only going strong, but continuing to stand out as an essential marketing channel for many businesses.
Why You Need a Blacklist and What It Can Teach You
One of the major metrics in SMS marketing is how many people opt in to receive your messages. But there’s a flip side to that metric: how many people opt out. In the ideal world, no one would ever leave your list and instead continue to make purchases or support your organisation for as long as you decide to message them.
What Your Customers Want From SMS Marketing
Mobile marketing offers an unprecedented access to your customers virtually any time, anywhere. This is particularly true for SMS marketing because it is “always on”. Customers don’t have to be surfing the web, or using an app to receive messages. Instead, they see the marketing messages right alongside ones from their friends and family.
What Not to Do When the ICO Comes Calling
The regulations about SMS marketing are quite clear. But sometimes people, and companies, can make mistakes. Find out what happened to a company that reacted poorly to the ICO’s request for information, and how it made their situation so much worse.
SMS Marketing: An Essential Guide to PECR
The PECR Regulations, better known as the Privacy and Electronics Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 are one of the most important pieces of legislation affecting those involved in SMS Marketing. They exist to safeguard the privacy and use of personal information when used for direct marketing through electronic means, including communications by SMS. Parts of it crossover with the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and where it does so, both pieces of legislation should be complied with. Unlike the DPA, the PECR is obligatory whether or not you process personal data in the course of your business. Read this essential guide to PECR for SMS Marketing to ensure you know everything you need to know.
Why Brits are Lucky When it Comes to SMS Spam
SMS spam is a problem worldwide. But in the UK, we’re less likely to get it than many other countries. Find out why that is, see some examples, and how you can do your part to keep your SMS messages free of spam.
Be Careful When Reading About Shortcodes and VMNs
When you start using SMS marketing, one of the first decisions you need to make is whether or not you’ll need to get replies. If you do, then you’ll need to decide between shortcodes and a virtual mobile number (VMN, also called longcode). If you don’t, then that’s alright too.
4 Simple Steps to Staying Compliant When Using SMS Messaging
Yet another company (Quigley and Carter Limited) have been fined by the ICO for not having permission to send SMS messages. In this case, they had outsourced their marketing to a third party who then sent messages on their behalf. So is staying compliant with the regulations regarding SMS messaging so difficult? It doesn’t have to be.
