Cellular17.01.2016

Waspa fines bulk SMS sender R15,000 for spam

SMS worry

The Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association (Waspa) has fined SMSPortal R15,000 for sending an unsolicited marketing SMS to a man who stated he had never consented to receive the message.

The Sunday Times’ Power Report stated that the case of John Patterson began in August in 2015, after he received a marketing message via SMS from Truworths.

Paterson said he was not a Truworths customer and never consented to any marketing from the company. On top of that, he had to pay for the cost of the SMS he sent back to stop the spam.

According to the report, SMSPortal sent the message to Patterson on behalf of Truworths, after which he laid a complaint with Waspa.

“It’s a victory for the small guy!” said Paterson.

The Power Report stated that this was was the sixth time Waspa had fined members since August 2014 for breaching the spam provisions. The fines ranged from R2,500 to R50,000.

The MD of SMSPortal, Charles Stretch, said the “[Waspa] report made it clear that no fault was attached to SMSPortal, but that it was still responsible for breaches by those on whose behalf it acted [Truworths], if its clients were not Waspa members”.

More on SMS

Vodacom, MTN subscribers illegally charged by spam SMS advert

Spam SMS – why South Africans pay to reply “Stop”

Show comments

Latest news

More news

Trending news

Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter