MMW learned Monday that iconectiv is behind a new push to safeguard brand reputations by slashing their association with spam.

As consumers increasingly rely upon text messaging for authentic engagement with organizations to conduct a variety of everyday tasks, the last thing they want or need are irrelevant, misdirected texts they did not ask to receive, or worse, their medical, financial and other personal data sent to someone else’s mobile phone.

iconectiv, a partner of the global communications industry connecting more than two billion people every day, have just announced iconectiv Right Party Verification for Messaging. It’s a new service for mobile marketers, messaging aggregators and contact centers to deliver targeted communications, less unwanted spam and happier customers.

“The service was developed in response to evolving Federal Communication Commission (FCC) rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) that now dictate companies must have permission not just to send marketing messages to a mobile number but also to have explicit consent to contact the owner of that number,” the company explains, noting how failure to comply can lead to large fines for offending companies. With some 45 million U.S mobile numbers typically reassigned every year, just one communication to a number with a new owner could trigger a fine that is currently set at a minimum $500 per unsolicited contact – increasing to $1,500 per contact for offenses deemed to be deliberate.

The numbers can quickly add up. Recent TCPA enforcement has seen many established and well-known brands endure record-setting legal penalties and multi-million dollar class-action lawsuits.

So how can this new service help?

Part of the iconectiv Messaging Solution “builds on the company’s long history in the mobile numbering space, particularly the transfer of numbers from one service provider to another.”

We’re told that with research showing that around 97 percent of messages are opened within three minutes, protecting the integrity of text messaging outreach is vital to today’s mobile marketing efforts.

“Right Party Verification for Messaging means companies can have renewed confidence in one of the most popular forms of customer engagement,” said Scott Puopolo, Executive Vice President of Information Solutions at iconectiv. “When managed correctly, text messaging is a powerful tool that delivers the right message into the hands of the right people. Handled badly, it can alienate customers, damage brand integrity, and lead to costly fines.”

To check out what iconectiv can do for you and for your reputation, check out the company’s official website here.

The post New Messaging Solution Helps Companies Avoid Spamming appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The answers to those questions may prove critical when Minnesota jurists consider a lawsuit in Minnesota lobbed at the AMC theater chain.

Andria Addison has alleged in a complaint just filed that AMC violated a federal text spam law. Addison is seeking class action status on the case.

“As part of their effort to promote business, defendants engaged in an especially aggressive and deleterious form of marketing: the transmission of unauthorized advertisements, in the form of ‘text message’ calls to the cellular telephones of consumers throughout the nation,” states the complaint, as reported by MediaPost.

Addison was upset when the chain sent her an unsolicited coupon via text in late April. The phone message may have been sent to all consumers enrolled in AMC’s “stubs” program. Addison admits she enrolled in “stubs” in 2012, but says she allowed her membership to lapse within a year.

“Her lawsuit alleges that transmitting the message violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits companies from using automated dialers to send text ads to consumers without their written permission,” notes MediaPost. “Addison also accuses the Leawood, Kansas-based theater chain of violating the anti-spam law with a mobile marketing campaign that involved offering consumers incentives — like a $1 soda coupon — in exchange for their cell phone numbers.”

SMS efforts have been under fire in recent years. Most firms say they do not rely on automated dialers, but work from generated lists of consumers who have agreed to receive notifications of various sorts.

The post Not All Popcorn and Skittles in Theater Biz: AMC Chain Accused of Text Spam Violations appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The latest research from AdaptiveMobile shows an alarming rate of spam targeting the hugely popular mobile messaging platform, particularly across Europe and India.

In effect, the spam explosion comes as the latest evidence of spammers moving away from SMS to concentrate on OTT (Over-The-Top) messaging platforms.

“The total scale of these individual spam attacks over WhatsApp is hard to tell, but if anything, it does seem clear that WhatsApp is joining the ranks of messaging systems which now have a functioning and active spam ecosystem, and the contributors to this spam are being affected by and coming from other messaging systems,” the report, highlighted by ThreatPost, reads.

Unfortunately, things have gotten so bad in India, for example, that WhatsApp is said to be “overrun” with spam there. And while the problem may get worse (in the short term) before getting better in the long run, WhatsApp is by no means taking this matter lightly.

With its worldwide popularity surging, WhatsApp recently announced end-to-end encryption for its Android app, a reality made possible by the November 2014 coupling of WhatsApp with Whisper Systems, a “secure text and mobile OS vendor.”

Quoted by ThreatPost, Open Whisper Systems says: “WhatsApp runs on an incredible number of mobile platforms, so full deployment will be an incremental process as we add TextSecure protocol support into each WhatsApp client platform. We have a ways to go until all mobile platforms are fully supported, but we are moving quickly towards a world where all WhatsApp users will get end-to-end encryption by default.”

The post What’s Up? Mobile Spam on WhatsApp appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

As a result, it should come as no surprise that “resistance to spam and irrelevant messages are two reasons why mobile consumers fail to engage with mobile travel ads,” according to the researchers behind a new study.

The study in question, carried out by mobile research firm On Device for mobile marketing company MobPartner, is based on a survey of 1,000 mobile users in August.

Mobile users who do travel research and planning — whether on mobile or laptop — want to experience trust and relevancy.

“Some 38 percent of respondents who had not yet engaged with a mobile ad related to travel, were reluctant to do so because they were worried about spam, according to the study, while 33 percent said such ads were irrelevant to them,” noted the report summary.

Trusted brands fared best. Fully 32 percent of surveyed mobile users indicated they are willing to click on a mobile travel ad if it came from a trusted brand. About 25 percent of those who had responded to an ad said they subsequently made a vacation-related purchase.

“Trusted brands, good offers and relevance are the biggest drivers for engagement with mobile ads related to travel,” says Alexandra Travlos, client service analyst at On Device Research in charge of the study.

The most viewed? Travel ads that are mobile video ads 33 percent).  And 32 percent said they had responded to an ad within a mobile game or application. Traditional banner ads garnered 30 percent.

“Once initial barriers are overcome and trust is established, users appear eager to make use of travel-related ads to get information and even book travel,” says Djamel Agaoua , CEO of MobPartner. “This speaks to the need for offering truly helpful and relevant travel ads.”

Another interesting insight from the study is that, even though smartphones were cited as the top device for travel research, most people still prefer to do early research such as planning and booking on a laptop. Why? Reasons included a greater sense of security, greater ease of comparison, ability to print out information, and the fact that many travel related companies have not optimized their mobile websites.

The post Mobile Users Want Travel Trust, Ignore Spammy Ads and Irrelevant Pitches appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

And Jared Reitzin, the CEO of mobileStorm, is fed up with it.

“Anyone else get super annoying SMS spam trying to sell sunglasses?” Reitzin asks in a recent post to the Digital Marketing Blog, the official blog of mobileStorm.

Reitzin, in fact, wants to send those spam messages to a place where the sun doesn’t shine.

“Seems like this message comes once or twice a month. They use emoticons to turn an SMS message into something that resembles an email,” Reitzin writes. “They also do not send this as an SMS message via the SMPP protocol but rather they send it via SMTP, which is the email protocol. They know they can text people by emailing to yourphonenumber@attwireless.com (or whatever domain your carrier is using). They have a randomizer that spits out message after message, changing the number one digit at a time. So if your last 4 digits are 2331, they try same area code and prefix, then change it to 2332, 2333, 2334 and so on.”

Reitzin notes that — unlike spam email, which is distressing but costs you nothing but the time it takes to hit the delete key — text messages like this can cost real money.

Reitzin’s advice?

“First off never respond directly to a phone number where you believe the spam text originated,” he explains. “Responding alerts the spammer that your number is genuine.”

Reitzin then gives specific instructions on what to do next (it’s AT&T specific, but it applies to other carriers, too).

Click here to read it, bookmark it, and share it for the good of everyone who has been plagued by the scourge of SMS spam.

The post mobileStorm Boss Explains How to Get Rid of SMS Spammers appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The company has been accused of sending SMS messages to consumers without first inviting them to join their service, and the recent ruling to toss their dismissal argument allows the class-action lawsuit filed by Illinois resident Kevin Sterk to proceed.

Filed in March 2013, Sterk’s complaint alleges that the social networking service violated TCPA laws by sending SMS ads using auto dialers without first getting permission from recipients. In his complaint Sterk alleges that an unsolicited text was sent to him by Path telling him that another Path user wanted to show him photos on the service’s website, and that the same message also had a link to that website with instructions on how to register and join.

Path argued that, since their company was relying on “human intervention” and only sent messages to people whose phone numbers were provided by the already existing Path users, they weren’t using an automated dialing system.

U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan disagreed with their argument.  He ruled that “The undisputed evidence shows that the equipment used by Path’s agent made calls from the list without human intervention,” adding “It is such calling that the section of the TCPA at issue in this case covers, not the collection of numbers for storage.”

Path has a number of other arguments pending, but this round definitely goes to the US District Court.

The post Evidence Shows that Path Violated TCPA with Mobile SPAM appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

You know those text messages that say you’ve received a $1,000 gift card to Best Buy or Walmart? Your heart skips a beat and you think, “This is my lucky day!” But a nanosecond later, you realize — hopefully — that by following the instructions in the text, including clicking various links, you’ll only be giving personal financial information to scammers?

According to a new report from NBC News,  the Federal Trade Commission has uncovered another alleged major source of text spam.

On Tuesday of this week, the FTC reached a legal settlement with a Florida-based affiliate marketing company and its two principals accused of sending well over 40 million deceptive text messages to consumers.

According to the same report, the FTC settlement prohibits the company from continuing to spam consumers. It also obligated them to turn over their remaining assets and “imposes a partially suspended monetary judgment of $377,321, which is all of the money received in connection with the scam.”

To learn more about detecting, reporting, and safeguarding yourself against SMS spam, visit the FTC’s consumer information page here.

The post FTC Shuts Down More SMS Spammers appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The scary discovery comes as Lookout announces its new standard for classifying adware.

Adware is an ad network that exhibits intrusive behavior without gaining appropriate consent from a user, which can pose a privacy risk.

Lookout now flags ad networks newly classified as adware in Lookout Mobile Security for Android, providing users with new insight and information on how to remove any applications containing adware.

“Mobile privacy is an increasingly important topic for consumers and app developers, and adware is a risk to user privacy and one of the most prevalent threats on mobile worldwide,” Lookout says, indicating it found that the global likelihood of a new Android Lookout user having adware on their device is 1.6%, and approximately 6.5% of free apps on Google Play today contain adware.

“Ad networks are a vital element in the mobile ecosystem, allowing app developers a way to offer free applications to consumers,” a statement from Lookout revealed Wednesday. “Ad networks that overstep user privacy bounds or negatively affect user experience create conflict, compromising not only consumers’ privacy and user experience, but also the developer community that relies on mobile ad networks to bring free products to market.”

The post Android’s Adware Epidemic In Focus appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Erin Mock, a resident of the state of Tennessee, filed a complaint in federal court asserting that Viacom violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by allegedly spamming her mobile device.

The text messages included ads promoting MTV programming.

The law referenced specifically prohibits companies from sending SMS messages without prior consent from the recipient.

Damages upwards of $1,500 per incident could be awarded.

Mock says she initially provided her cell phone number to Viacom in response to an ad urging people to vote via text for their favorite Video Music Awards nominees. She says that the ad, which aired during the MTV’s 2011 broadcast of the Video Music Awards, didn’t warn people that voting would subject them to “future text spam advertisements.”

Over the next four weeks, Mock says she received several text messages promoting everything from Jersey Shore to Real World – two popular MTV programs.

“The TCPA was designed to prevent calls and messages like the ones described within this complaint and to protect the privacy of citizens,” Mock asserted in the lawsuit.

Viacom is yest to issue a formal response to the suit and its underlying claims.

Mock is seeking both monetary damages and an injunction against Viacom.

The post Viacom Accused of Allegedly Spamming Mobile Users appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Adrianne Jeffries of The Verge says that digital marketer Stephen Kenwright “downloaded the app earlier this week, tried it out, uninstalled it, and went to bed.”

But that seeming conclusion to Kenwright’s relationship with Path wasn’t the end at all.

“When he woke up,” Jeffries reports, “he found that Path had gone on a rogue mission early in the morning, texting and robocalling an unknown number of his contacts, including his grandparents.”

Path reportedly worked its way through Kenwright’s entire contact book by the next day.

Coworkers, friends, and family were asking him about the text or phone call they’d received from Path, which stated that Kenwright wanted to share photos with them.

“Having uninstalled the app yesterday when I decided it wasn’t for me, I’m going to go ahead and assume that Path took this data out of my phonebook sometime during the half hour I had it installed,” Kenwright stated in his initial blog entry, which can be read here.

Path’s response?

Kenwright has updated his blog post with a clarification from Path. The company meant to send the messages during the time he was signed up for the app and “didn’t seem to realize that UK landlines… read out text messages that are sent to them.” Path is investigating why there was a delay in the timing of the message delivery.

The post Path Accused of Spamming with Texts, Robocalls appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.