Nipping mobile spam in the bud

A campaign aimed at preventing the kind of rampant bulk messaging prevalent in the fixed, PC-based internet world taking place over SMS has had a promising start.

SOS SMS, launched by software developers LiveWebs and mobile marketing agency BeepMarketing a week ago, has seen consumers forwarding details of what they consider SMS spam via a text message tagged 'SPAM' or 'SCAM' or by via a website.

Helen Keegan, BeepMarketing MD, said: "Junk sent to phones is potentially damaging to the whole mobile industry and we didn't feel anyone was doing something about it particularly. If we'd waited for the operators or an industry body to act we could have been waiting a long time."

A recent survey of 2,822 silicon.com readers found two-thirds of spam recipients have reported being a victim over their mobile phones, a figure that includes SMS and email-to-mobile messages.

The campaign aim is now to get operators and the Mobile Data Association (MDA) to sit up and take note. SOS SMS will compile a database of alleged wrongdoing and pass on relevant details to Icstis, the telecoms body that regulates premium rate numbers.

Mike Grenville, CEO at mobile messaging association 160 characters, said in a statement: "There are some very good legitimate mobile marketing campaigns but scams and spam are making the consumer cautious and ruining the experience for consumer and mobile marketer alike."

BeepMarketing's Keegan said there are companies that have spammed via SMS without meaning to - and there is indeed a grey area when messages received are from an end user's own mobile provider - but pointed out there is one good reason to believe mobile spam won't become overwhelming. "Somebody, somewhere down the line is paying for it," she said.

Even free SMS providers are paying for individual messages and this is in stark contrast to the fixed line internet where millions of bulk mails can be sent for little or no cost.

Further details are available at the http://www.grumbletext.co.uk/sossms.htm website.