Honest 836 Report post Posted July 11, 2008 Telemarketers take SMS route to hook cell users 11 Jul, 2008, 1520 hrs IST, ET Cellphone users have noticed a marked rise in pesky promotional messages, peddling everything from astrology, quizzes and “free gifts’’ . These irritants, albeit less personalised, beep in at odd hours and jam the inbox. A Mumbai resident, for instance, recently woke up to such an early morning SMS. S K Virmani of Delhi-based National Consumer Helpline says telemarketers may be relying on SMSes because they are “the cheapest mode of communication’’ . Also, most consumers don’t complain about SMSes. They remain unaware that the National Do Not Call (NDNC) registry applies to SMSes as well. The NDNC registry website clearly defines unsolicited commercial communication as “any message, through telecommunications service, which is transmitted for the purpose of informing about, or soliciting or promoting any commercial transaction in relation to goods, investments or services which a subscriber opts not to receive... ’’ Like many cellphone users, Pritee Shah of Ahmedabad’s Consumer Education and Research Centre too has received “absurd’ ’ SMSes promising her a candlelight dinner and rock band tickets. “When I verbally complained to my service provider, I was informed, via an SMS, that my complaint had been registered and the SMSes would stop. But they continue to clutter my inbox.’’ An official at the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) says such SMSes and calls must come from unregistered telemarketing companies. “Registered marketing companies are mostly quite big. They won’t take the risk because they could get penalised. Their licences could be revoked and their telephones disconnected.’’ On whether there are plans to regulate unregistered telemarketers, the official says, “We have written to DoT. But till date, there is no legislation.’’ Shah recently traced the number of a telemarketer and stumbled upon some interesting information. Her number—which is on the NDNC registry—was sourced from a CD containing a database of 10,000 cellphone users. Such CDs, says Shah, can be bought for as little as Rs 200. (Virmani warns consumers against sharing their mobile numbers at public places like exhibition grounds and restaurants because their particulars could be used for marketing purposes). The TRAI official, however, emphasises that where a marketer sources the calling list is immaterial so long as he “scrubs’ ’ the list with the NDNC directory. “Scrubbing means if you have a data of 10,000 subscribers, say, 2,000 numbers which are registered for NDNC should be removed from that list,’’ illustrates Consumer Helpline’s Virmani. Evidently , this does not always happen. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
