Telemarketing calls and junk mail have evolved. Now that consumers are used to dodging junk e-mail and Internet pop-up ads on their desktops and wireless messaging and mobile marketing are becoming more mainstream, mobile phones are quickly becoming the next vehicle of choice for spammers.
Despite industry claims and analyst comments that wireless spam is not yet a problem in the United States, news on the subject has recently ramped up around the nation. AT&T Wireless Services Inc. customers in Sacramento County, Calif., for example, recently issued complaints after receiving a text message from AT&T Wireless touting the cell-phone company’s international services-a twist on spam because in this case the carrier was soliciting its existing customers.
Indeed, determining what constitutes “wireless spam” presents one puzzle for wireless carriers that are anxious to use advanced features like short message service to advertise to their subscribers but also have to avoid alienating customers who don’t want to receive advertisements via text messages.
In addition, just because a wireless device is hosting spam, it might not be considered wireless spam. A consumer using a handheld device to check a Hotmail account full of spam does not qualify as wireless spam. Still, some of the junk that ends up on wireless devices may be curbed by initiatives to limit e-mail spam, like Microsoft Corp.’s much-publicized announcement it will work with other technology companies and the government to prevent spam through technological innovation, industry efforts and legal action.
Consumer efforts to curb unwanted messages from showing up on wireless devices are evidenced by Web sites like www.wirelessspamwatch.com, which provides consumers a forum to report incidents of mobile spam and encourages complainers to take it a step further by contacting local newspapers and Congress members. The site lists one recent example of mobile-phone spam, in which an Arizona-based mortgage company sent unsolicited wireless messages advertising low mortgage rates to wireless subscribers.
“While it is a daily routine for many to receive unsolicited e-mail on our desktop-it is unacceptable when the same annoying e-mail arrives on a wireless device that we are paying 25 cents to 45 cents a minute to receive! If not stopped, wireless e-mail will never succeed,” Wirelessspamwatch.com warns.
And then there’s mobile marketing, the industry that was born around the huge advertising potential SMS presents. Mobile marketing thrives in Europe and Asia because people respond to it, despite the fact that much of what is received there is unsolicited advertising and considered spam by any uninterested end user. The Mobile Marketing Association’s Executive Director Peter Fuller estimated advertisers send 40 percent to 50 percent of all text messages sent in Japan.
Consumers respond to the interactive nature of mobile marketing, explained Fuller, describing one application in which users can answer advertiser-sponsored trivia questions via their mobile phones while watching a favorite TV show. Indeed, according to Fuller, in Asia mobile marketing is comparable to, and perhaps more effective than, TV advertising, partly because consumers can immediately respond to mobile advertisements.
But the U.S. wireless industry fears that subscribers who receive advertising they never asked for quickly will label the messages spam and take their frustration out on their service providers by churning or by canceling their text messaging service altogether.
Still, mobile marketing is growing legs in the United States, and news in the sector shows the continuing growth and potential of the wireless advertising industry in the country.
“Mobile messaging is an ideal communications and marketing channel to integrate with radio,” said Dennis O’Heron, director of marketing at a Boston radio station. The station’s parent company Clear Channel Communications recently partnered with mobile marketing company M-Qube to introduce a service through which station listeners can opt in to a text messaging advertising service to learn of concert tickets in advance of public sale, respond to contests and be alerted of important news, station events and promotions.
“We see that text messaging has become popular among young adults and are capitalizing on this trend to better serve our listeners and our advertisers,” said O’Heron. “While we’ve really just begun to tap the potential of this new medium, we’re very encouraged by the early results.”
The MMA is developing a strict “opt in, opt out” policy, like that used in the M-Qube-Clear Channel campaign, which it hopes will become a standard for North American wireless advertising, according to Fuller.
The association is still exploring exactly how the policy would work, but Fuller explained one potential scenario in which wireless subscribers could access a portal from which they could opt in and opt out of wireless advertisements based on subject matter. The portal would serve as a middleman between the subscriber and the advertiser, so the advertiser would never actually get the subscriber’s phone number, Fuller explained.
“U.S. carriers are very, very forward thinking and sensitive to consumer adoption of mobile marketing,” said Fuller, adding that carriers want to ensure enough consumer protection is in place so mobile marketing has a chance to become a beneficial service.
AT&T Wireless, for example, has implemented a solution from Syntegra, part of British Telecommunications Group, to prevent wireless spam. Syntegra’s Detect Undesirable E-mail (DUE) product monitors e-mail and detects spam. It allows both carriers and subscribers to administer rules to define the level of content filtering desired on incoming mobile e-mail messages.
Wireless spam presents more potential problems than Internet or e-mail spam, according to Reid Thorkleson, director of Syntegra’s wireless sales vertical. Not only is it an annoyance for the consumer, but it also could cost the consumer money and could cause enough congestion to lead a network to crash.
Filters to block unwanted content from landing in a mobile-phone in-box, like Internet filters capable of blocking similar materials from finding their way to e-mail in-boxes, are also starting to be rolled out. Dublin, Ireland-based Telcotec in May released its Content Guardian solution for combating mobile spam, specifically adult content, which Fran Fanning, product director at Telcotec, said represents a large chunk of mobile spam in Europe.
Telcotec’s Content Guardian integrates with carrier networks, then intercepts messages, analyzes them, and filters them based on what the individual end user desires to receive. The solution has garnered a “huge amount” of interest according to Fanning, who said Telcotec provides software to 40 telecommunications operators worldwide.
“Picture phones are the current fashion fad in mobile phones, and children take to the new technology with amazing speed and skill. Already children are exposed to pornographic images, and mobile operators are being asked how they will deal with the unwanted pictures,” explained Fanning. “Our Content Guardian gives operators the capability to filter pornographic images, viruses and spam according to the wishes of the mobile-phone owner. Customers can decide for themselves how much filtering they would like.”
Even though mobile spamming is in its infancy in the United States, government bills have been introduced that may help deter the problem of unwanted content before it really becomes one. Lawmakers are working with the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association to include wireless in broad-reaching anti-spam bills.
But to date, only one anti-spam bill that specifically targets mobile-phone spam has been introduced. That measure, introduced by Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) in early 2001, would make it illegal to transmit unsolicited advertisements via wire
less networks.
