Operators help SMS spam free for all in Pakistan

Link: Daily Times – Leading News Resource of Pakistan – SMS spam rings the bell for phone users

It all seems to be kicking off in Pakistan on the subject of text spam. Although there’s apparently no law to stop marketers sending unsolicited texts to mobile users, there’s accusations that mobile companies have been sharing subscriber details with advertisers and giving them discounts on sending texts – a claim which the mobile companies deny.

Hafiz Mohsin, owner of Al-Azeem Services (an advertising company) in Faisalabad, told Daily Times that he had been providing sms advertisement service to his clients for the past four months. He said he had prepared a software that sent sms to all prepaid and post-paid numbers in a series provided by cell phone companies with which he had agreements.

But the mobile operators say otherwise:

Mobilink managing director (Public Relations) Omar Manzoor said the company was aware of spam sms on its network, but the company did not share customer data with anyone, especially for advertising purposes. He said the company was looking for a way to curb this activity and save its customer’s from the trouble.

A Warid Telecom customer service dealer told Daily Times that there was no law to stop spam text messages. She said the company had no provision in its policy to share its clients’ numbers. However, she said the company’s employees could do it personally and it could be investigated.