"It is highly frustrating to receive SMS spam with no way of knowing how to stop it. Spam Stop is a positive development in the fight against spam and will achieve tangible results for the consumer," says Sean Conde, CEO of Mira Networks.
Although jail time and fines are sanctioned, many spammers flout Section 45 of the Electronic Communications Act (which regulates the transmission of unsolicited commercial messages) by not providing an opt-out mechanism or contact details in their SMS messages.
While South Africa's three cellular networks recently launched a Code of Good Practice aimed at the WASP industry, the escalation procedure outlined in the code for spam victims to follow is lengthy, and numerous telephone calls are required for mobile users to be taken off spam databases - a frustrating process of calling the cellular networks, the spammer's service provider and the offending company itself.
The website SMScode.co.za was also launched by the cellular networks and the Wireless Application Service Provider Association (WASPA) in 2005 to enable cellphone users to identify and contact spammers. Yet, "with only 3.5 million Internet connections in SA, SMScode.co.za remains largely inaccessible. Consumers need an SMS solution to an SMS problem. The explosion of mobile content services that automatically subscribe consumers hastened the development of Spam Stop," explains Conde.
