|
|
|
ACMA Issues Biggest Ever Fine To Phone Spammer |
|
|
|
Written by Adam Gosling
|
|
Tuesday, 24 July 2007 |
Nobody likes a spammer, but it is all the more galling when they cost you money by making you
phone in to hear their time wasting exploitations. Thankfully one
particularly offensive marketing ploy has hit the dust with the ACMA
successfully issuing DC Marketing with a A$149,600 fine for breaking
the law.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority
(ACMA) has issued DC Marketing Europe Limited with a substantial fine
for what is described as missed call marketing, a ploy where an
automatic dialler is set up to call you mobile phone and then hang up
after the first ring so that you are left with a missed call message on
your phone.
Naturally the inquisitive or polite victim, returns the call on their dime only to get a recorded marketing message.
Always
do an Internet search of any unknown number you get calling your
mobile. Often you will find somebody else has already been stung and
posted a warning on a news group somewhere.
In this case the ACMA described the actions of DC Marketing as extensive breaches of Australia's Spam Act 2003 and it is the largest penalty issued by ACMA since the Spam Act's penalty provisions came into force in
April 2004.
The ACMA penalised DC Marketing for 102 contraventions relating to missed call
marketing activities in July and August 2006.
‘Consumers need to feel confident that when they use their mobile phone they
are not going to be deceived into receiving unwanted marketing messages,' said
Chris Chapman, ACMA Chairman. ‘This penalty should serve as a warning to all
service providers that ACMA will act decisively on conduct that breaches the
Spam Act.'
The ACMA points out that Consumers (the victims) had "no way of
knowing who the missed call was from before calling DC Marketing and so
effectively paid to receive DC Marketing's marketing messages".
It found the marketing messages sent out by DC Marketing were unsolicited, did not identify
the sender and did not contain an unsubscribe facility, each of which is a
breach of the Spam Act.
The Act sets outs that commercial electronic messages must have the following
features:
-
Consent - it must not be sent without the recipient's
consent
-
Identity - it must contain accurate information about the
person or organisation that authorised the sending of the message
-
Unsubscribe - it must contain a functional ‘unsubscribe'
facility to allow the recipient to opt out from receiving messages from that
source in the future.
The ACMA says Australia is ranked 28th in the spam-relaying
countries thanks to its pursuit of spammers, most recently with the
October 2006 decision of Justice Nicholson in the Federal Court in
Perth to award a pecuniary penalty of $4.5 million against Clarity1 Pty
Ltd and $1 million against its managing director, Mr Wayne Mansfield,
for contravening the Spam Act.
‘As a consequence of increased resources provided by the Commonwealth
Government in this year's Federal Budget, ACMA will be significantly
increasing its anti-spam activities over the next year and will be closely
monitoring the mobile marketing industry's compliance with the Spam Act,' Mr
Chapman added. With repeat offenders facing potential penalties of up to $1.1
million per day, Mr Chapman warned that ‘non-compliance would prove to be a
costly exercise.'
www.spam.acma.gov.au
Related news items Newer news items
Older news items |
|
|
