Bulk SMS campaigns that are not spam

In a landmark case in Australian this week, the Federal Court in Brisbane charged two companies and three individuals with a total of $15.75 million in penalties for contravening the Spam Act of 2003. Sending out bulk SMS spam can leave your company with higher costs than returns.

The companies (Mobilegate Ltd and Winning Bid Pty Ltd) and individuals (Mr Simon Anthony Owen, Mr Tarek Andreas Salcedo and Mr Glenn Christopher Maughan) were indicted for engaging in a scheme to illegally obtain cellphone numbers from members of dating websites, using fake member profiles, in order to send them premium-rated commercial bulk SMS messages. This is the first time the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has taken legal action against companies sending unsolicited SMS spam.

However, aside from the potential costs involved in legal fees, penalties and even bail, sending unsolicited bulk SMS messages can severely harm your company’s brand, negatively impacting on your sales and revenue.

So here are a few things, in line with the Australian Spam Act of 2003 and the Trade Practices Act of 1974, that you need to know before starting your own bulk SMS campaign.

All commercial electronic messages sent in Australia need to contain the following:

1. Consent – all commercial messages sent must be with the recipients’ consent. For bulk SMS messages, an opt-in clause is required in order to operate legally. Your subscribers can sign-up to you campaign through either an SMS or email opt-in, via a competition or advert. They may give express consent or consent inferred from ‘existing business or other relationships’.
2. Identification – your bulk SMS messages and opt-in campaign must contain clear and accurate information about the person or organisation that authorised the sending of the message. One of the ways you can reinforce this is through a sender ID, which is an identifying number or name that registers as the sender on a bulk SMS message. You can apply for and register a Sender ID through an SMS gateway.
3. Unsubscribe – lastly you need to provide an opt-out clause that allows members of your group to leave and not receive further communications from you if they wish. An example is if a customer sends in one of the following case-insensitive keywords: STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE or QUIT to your short code, this message will be passed to you. You will then no longer be able to send bulk SMS messages to the mobile number from your short code or the number you sent it from.

Since the penalty provisions of the Spam Act came into force in 2004, Australia has dropped from tenth place of countries relaying spam to 32^nd place in 2008. Australians are encouraged to report spam to the ACMA by visiting www.spam.acma.gov.au or calling 1300 855 180.

Provided that you follow the relevant laws, responsible bulk SMS campaigns, are still an ideal way to reach your customers through reminders, alerts, competitions and latest specials.

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Tags: bulk sms, Bulk SMS Messages, mobile messaging, Sender ID, SMS, SMS gateway, SMS spam, spam, Spam Act