The Australian Communications and Media Authority has advised two companies alleged to have engaged in 'missed call' marketing that these marketing activities are likely to constitute serious and extensive contraventions of the country's Spam Act 2003. Following ACMA's intervention the companies responsible have now stopped making these calls while ACMA's investigations are undertaken.
'Missed call' marketing is the term that has been given to the practice of calling a mobile telephone for such a short period of time that the owner cannot answer the call. When the marketer disconnects the call, most mobile phones present a 'missed call' notification with the marketer's number. The marketer intends that the owner of the phone will think that they have missed a legitimate call and ring the number back, in which case they hear a recorded promotional message.
"This is similar to receiving email spam which includes nothing except a link to a website," said Nerida O'Loughlin, General Manager of ACMA's Industry Outputs Division. "In many ways, it is worse, as the cost of marketing is shifted almost entirely to the target, and the method of communication is more intrusive."
"ACMA has closely scrutinised the missed call marketing practice to determine whether it is in breach of the anti-spam legislation. We believe that it is, and would like to send a clear message to the public and the industry about the legality of this practice," she said.
In the first and most prevalent example of 'missed call' marketing, callers were told about a gift of mobile content that they could receive by calling a 190 premium rate number. In a more recent example of this type of marketing, callers were advised of a mobile premium SMS-based dating service operated on a '19' number."
Posted to the site on 19th September 2006
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/19417.php