Cyber Police to Help Stop Ad Message Spammers

EghtesadOnline: Iranian Cyber Police will counter companies sending advertisements to mobile network subscribers, Communications Regulatory Authority announced.

News ID: ۷۴۷۵۰۲

08 June 2019

As the authority reported on its website Cra.ir, a list of offender companies, causing nuisance to subscribers with ad messages, has been sent to the police.

In an effort to curb the huge number of annoying and unwanted ads, CRA has banned companies from sending mass messages to mobile subscribers without the consent of users.

All clients of mobile operators can choose to receive or block ad messages by dialing *800#. The authority, however, reports that the offender companies have maintained access and continue to send ad messages to subscribers who had already blocked the service, according to Financial Tribune.

The police will crack down on companies found in breach, CRA says.

The authority started a campaign against unwanted and annoying ad messages in November 2017 by publically introducing an automated system.

People can complain against such ad senders by simply forwarding the spammers’ phone numbers through an automated system.

They can simply send the ad senders’ number to 195 and the regulator will block the number after issuing a warning.

Since the initiative started, close to 129,000 phone numbers of advertisement senders have been blocked by the authority.

However, experts believe that the battle against spammers is far from over, as new companies join the bandwagon of continuing such advertisement campaigns.

The cost of mass advertisement through text messages is significantly low and that is why companies opt for such means.