How to avoid them unwanted marketing texts

Receiving Unwanted texts, do something about it.

Marketing texts are becoming a significant problem to the individual over the past few months. Marketing text messages have been around for a number of year, but with innovations in technology's and the use of mobile phones becoming a nasality, companies are finding it easier to send out mass messages.

One of the biggest problems with marketing texts is that it can be hard to tell whether the text originates from a trusted company. A majority of the texts can be spam to trick people into entering personal details. Similar to email spam, the messages can take you to a web page where the individual is required to enter personal details or account details. A common email spam involves a company impersonating HSBC. The emails contains a link and a short piece of text saying ‘There are problems with your account, please log in to resolve this issue’. When following the link the web page is in fact insecure and a scam.

The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 covers the way in which organizations send direct marketing by electronic means, this includes text message or SMS. Organizations and companies are not entitled to send you direct marketing text messages if you don't agree to receive them. The only way in which they can send you marketing texts is; if the sender has obtained your details through a sale or negotiations for sale, the messages are about similar products or services offered by the sender and if you were given the opportunity to refuse the texts when your details were collected and, if not refused, you were given a simple way to opt out of the messaging service.

The big question is what can you do if you are receiving them unwanted marketing texts? If you think the text messages are breaching regulations then the first thing you should do is email the organization, informing them of the messages. It is key to keep a copy of every correspondence. On the other had if your are unsure of where the messages originates from or if the message does not come from a company you are familiar with then you should not respond to the message as this can confirm your number is live. One of the most common solutions people will see on most marketing texts is the option to text 'stop' to a telephone number of 5-digit code shown in the text massage.

Here are some ways in which to prevent unwanted marketing calls;

• Don't advertise your mobile number (putting it on the internet)
• Be careful who you give your mobile number to
• Check privacy policies and marketing options carefully, you can tell them not to contact you by text massage.

Some of the main culprits are those of accident, debt management, PPI and payday loan companies. Mobile network companies are aware of these text messages and the trick they play. A majority of them consist of message being directed to the wrong name, engaging the receiver of the messages. For example 'Hi Tom here's that site I was telling you about'. It’s not something to worry about, as it is believed that the companies sending the messages are not holding personal information about specific individuals but are  randomly generating mobile numbers, sending 100's or 1000's of messages.

These massages breach the legislation and should be dealt with accordingly. You should either contact your network operator customer services or use one of the reporting numbers below;

• Vodafone: forward the text to 87726
• Three: Forward the text to 37726
• Orange, O2 and t-mobile forward the text to 7726

A great alternative is to change your number; a fresh number will create new details that companies will find hard to track re-track. For that executive touch and a memorable number that is easy for you and your friends to remember, find a huge range of numbers at Unique Sims. With a choice of special numbers, platinum numbers, diamond numbers, gold numbers and silver numbers there is something for every price range.

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