On February 6th I received an SMS from a company called Sprint Media unbeknown to me at the time telling me that my "4800 points will expire tomorrow and that I need to redeem them now" I assumed it to be from Vodacom as I associated it to the Vodacom Talking Points incentive programme. Between my last blog to today, several emails have been exchanged between myself, consumer watch dog Wendy Knowler, Alan Wienand of AW Consulting, Charles, Reuvers, Leon Perlman, Lorraine Hartzer from WASPA, Neil Hutchinson from http://www.grapevinemessaging.co.za/ , Direct Marketing Association and Unnamed individuals from Sprint Media S.L

The Role Players 

Consumer Watch: Wendy Knowler

As my first line of defence, I contacted Wendy Knowler who runs the consumer forum for the The Star, Pretoria News, Cape Times & Daily News. Wendy Mediated and quality controlled my messages to the appropriate people involved in this long chain She was very quick to direct my complaint to the the correct channel, that being WASPA ( Wireless Application Service Providers Association )

WASPA (http://www.waspa.org.za/)

WASPA is an Authorative body that upholds public perception of services and protects against bad practices with an appropriate Code of Conduct, representing the interests of its members and consumers, by enforcing the good practices established by this Code. Over the last 14 days I have corresponded with WASPA 14 time, this was the last message I received from them : 

Dear Sagren Moodley

Please read the correspondence from Sprint Media

Sprint Media S.L.

2011-02-14

10:56:52

In conjunction with your request for information related to number 27*********, this number was originally supplied by the data provider AW Consulting, a proud member of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). The number in question was included in their database on 2/10/2010 and has not opted out since then. In addition the number does not form part of the DMASA Opt Out Register (www.facilities.co.za/dcm). AW consulting fully adheres to the current data protection legislation in South Africa. Notwithstanding, to help resolve the situation, the number has been added to their internal opt ou register and flagged fo non-contact on all future campaigns. Should the customer wish to contact AW consulting, their email address is awc.customerservice@gmail.com. Regards, Sprint Media

Regards

Charles Reuvers

WASPA Secretariat

Basically this letter states that I am still obliged to receive messages from marketing companies as I have not yet taken the initiative to unsubscribe myself from the national consumer database - http://www.facilities.co.za/dma/dnc.aspx

MOBMATIC (http://www.mobmatic.com/)

Mobmatic is the company responsible for sending me their promotional SMS telling me that my talking points will expire tomorrow if I do not redeem them immediately. Mobmatic is a company that is owned and operated by Sprint Media S.L., AP.C. 314 29600 Marbella, Málaga, Spain and from what I have read on their site they offer various incentives based on accumulation of reward points. They have not communicated with me directly as promised by Alan Wienand from AW consulting, all that I allegedly have from them is the above message  which looks like it has been sent from the office of AW Consulting.

 

Alan Wienand from AW Consulting - awc.customerservice@gmail.com

Contacted me on 10 February 2011 at 17:30 from an unknown number and advised that he is responsible for forwarding my information to Sprint Media for there sales and marketing purposes, in all of my correspondences with him, which were 5, he said that he got my information from a national consumer database which is obtainable from www.dmasa.org and that AW Consulting fully adheres to the current data protection legislation in South Africa. Telephonically he pointed out to me that I need to make myself aware of the Electronics Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002.

I summarised the following as my intepretation from the act and forwarded it to him.  

Unsolicited goods, services or communications

45.(1) Any person who sends unsolicited commercial communications to consumers, must provide the consumer

(a) with the option to cancel his or her subscription to the mailing list of that person; and
(b) with the identifying particulars of the source from which that person obtained the consumer’s personal information, on request of the consumer.

(2) No agreement is concluded where a consumer has failed to respond to an unsolicited communication.
(3) Any person who fails to comply with or contravenes subsection (1) is guilty of an offence and liable, on conviction, to the penalties prescribed in section 89(1).
(4) Any person who sends unsolicited commercial communications to a person who has advised the sender that such communications are unwelcome, is guilty of an offence and liable, on conviction, to the penalties prescribed in section 89(1).

Since this is a commercial message, and since I have not requested to be placed on your mailing list, this message (The one that I have received from Sprint Media on 6 February 2011, who were supplied my contact information through your Company AW Consulting) constitutes an unsolicited communication in terms of section 45 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (Act 25 of 2002).

In terms of section 45(4) of this Act, this message serves as notification that I do not wish to receive any further marketing communications from you.I am happy that you have contacted me on 10 February 2011 at 17:30 and assured me that you will remove me from your contact list, however,  failure to comply with this request constitutes a criminal offense in terms of the ECT Act.

Additionally, I hereby request that you immediately disclose where you obtained my contact details, as per section 45(1) of the ECT Act. Failure to respond to this request also constitutes a criminal offense. Although you have told me that you received my contact information from http://www.dmasa.org/ I am not satisfied because I have not indemnified or consented the dissemination of my private contact information anywhere whatsoever

I also note that the original message from Sprint Media on 06 February 2011 did not provide me with an option to cancel my subscription or opt out from the mailing list, as required by section 45(1) of the Act. This means that they may already have committed an offense in terms of section 45(3) of the Act, and may be subject to prosecution.

Should you wish to familiarise yourself with the relevant legislation, or check my facts, a copy of the ECT Act is available on-line via the following web site:

http://www.internet.org.za/ect_act.html#Electronic_transactions_policy 

DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA - www.dmasa.org

The DMASA is an independent body representing not only interactive and direct marketers, but with a strong focus on the consumer too. At the very first splash screen on the website you are given two options, to opt into or out of the national consumer registry. The problem I have with this national registry is that I never opted in , in the first place, knowingly at least, Whenever you participate in any of those 33*** competitions or sms competitions, you are not only entering a competition, and paying R1-50 to R30-00 at a time,  but you are also entering yourself into the national consumer database giving sales and marketing companies full authority to distribute your personal information to whomever they please for whatever amount they ask for.

Once you have opted out of the national registry you have full authority over who sends you any type of marketing material and because of the binding agreement between yourself and the DMASA any marketing material received from anybody unauthorised will be in contravention of the Electronics Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002.

You can stop information or communication that's coming to you through the National Do Not Contact Database. The database can be accessed via your mobile by SMSing the word DMA and your ID number to 34385 or through our call centre which is 0861 OPT OUT.'
or by visiting the following site the DMA. Dont contact me Data base Marketing Pre-emptive Block (http://www.facilities.co.za/dma/dnc.aspx), I suggest visiting the website and completing the opt out form.

In summary and to conclude, I had to go through all the trouble above to de-register myself from a database that I didn't know existed to stop receiving messages I didn't know I indemnified, so let this be warning that you must always be aware of the competitions you enter, the documents and contracts you sign because when you don't read the fine print you are contributing to a consumer database that big companies pay top dollar to sell you stuff.  This matter has been resolved and is now closed.

 

I am so angry at this scam, more so because I almost fell victim for this trap, I received an SMS yesterday from 2782004842237929 at 18:20, the sms read, "Your 4800 points will expire tomorrow! Redeem them now at http://ems.cx/w/?m=xxxxxxxxxxx" the x's represent my cellphone number. My immediate reaction was to call vodacom 082 241 1082, this is the number you call Vodacom to retrieve your talking points, as I am currently on a top up contract I am well aware that I do not qualify for talking point rewards as this rewards program is only available to you if you are a prepaid user which was also made clear to me from the Vodacom Teleprompts. Read more about the talking points rewards system here, http://www.vodacom.co.za/vodacom/rewards/Talking+Points/Learn+More?selected=2_a2&ciFormat=default&ht=t So after reading the attached link from Vodacom you would realise that to achieve 4800 talking points, you would have spent R48 000-00 of airtime which in my case is improbable because of the top up plan I am on. Clicking on the link http://ems.cx/w/?m=xxxxxxxxxxx" attached to the sms will take you to another site where you are given a link to redeem your points "http://m.mobmatic.com/ads/jv/points/?m=xxxxxxxxxxx" replace the x's with some arbitrary number like 10 "0's" or "1234567890". Below the SMS is a hidden disclaimer which you cannot see on your mobile, it reads the following Mobmatic has requested that your mobile number be made available. Clicking on 'redeem now' you're declaring you're 16+ and accepting terms and conditions. Mobmatic is an entertainment subscription service for just R7/day. We reserve the right to send you free promotional SMS relating to this and other services operated by Sprint Media S.L Support@mobmatic.com or call 0861106472. When you click on the "REDEEM NOW " link, it forwards you "System Administrator, WAP Push message" which I believe activates and confirms your subscription with Mobmatic thereby giving them full authority to debit your airtime everyday for a service that you will never use because you do not know you are subscribing to it. www.mobmatic.com is a company in Spain and from what I have read on their site they offer various incentives based on accumulation of reward points. This type of marketing of a service is coercing people into subscribing to a service that they are not aware of which I am almost certain is Illegal,  Are Vodacom aware of and endorses this service which leverages the sale of their service on the strength of Vodacoms reward system. I think there needs be more discretion with consumer information, this is something out of our control, sites like these  http://lists.nextmark.com/market;jsessionid=6EA8DD7643AA08EBD551CBEAC2CDB623?page=order/online/datacard&id=135746 sell consumer databases to marketing companies, this is how your personal information is passed along to those pesky companies that want to to sell you cellphone contracts all the time. So it doesn't matter how careful you with where and to whom you divulge your personal information to. Cellphone companies should be held responsible when people fall prey to these scams, as there should be an authoritative standard that governs companies that markets good and services using consumer databases,  consumer databases should only exist for the use of the company from where it was sourced as a means of communication between the service provider and the client. Mobile users do not have spam filters on sms's, one only has the option of clicking unsubscribe or opt out which most people don't do and in most cases when you receive this message chances are you are already subscribing to that service. At R7 per day it works out to R210-00 per month (The cost of a DSTV package). Be very careful when responding to sms's and always verify with your service provider the authenticity of any messages received from them, you will prevent a lot of headache and save a lot of cash in the process. Click here to read my follow up article on how this issue was resolved

Check out this doos, its almost an everyday occurrence where I work, people that park like arseholes, fortunately if you are early enough, you are able to secure a nice parking away from an arsehole, if you late on the other hand you feel the wrath of the arsehole.

The Jackass in this Yaris clearly felt that he/she is entitled to take up two parking bays, at the time of taking this photo, I didn't have an arsehole ticket to leave on his/her windscreen, an areshole ticket is a ticket that you give to a arsehole that clearly lacks the driving skill it takes to park a car between two clearly marked lines like the genius above. Download an arsehole ticket here.

 In fact arsehole parking is such a huge irritation there is a site dedicated to naming and shaming these dumbasses, its called http://www.youparklikeanasshole.com/, check it out, and make sure you save a copy of the asshole ticket from the link provided so that the next time it happens to you, you will be armed with tools necessary to embarrass an arsehole.