I have complained numerous times about the abuse of my phone number in the hands of Airtel, GLO and MTN. Everyday, these GSM providers spam me with one promo or another. Airtel’s is particularly getting out of hand.

I just received the following poorly constructed, all caps message from Airtel

CONGRATULATIONS! SIMPLY TEXT YOUR NAME TO 444 NOW! 08125780850 (my number) RECEIVED AN URGENT CALL FOR AIRTELS N1 000 000 CASH DRAW TONIGHT! SUBSCRIBE FOR N100 DAILY.

Now what is the difference between this and a typical scam message? I definitely did not receive any urgent call.

Of recent, almost all companies in Nigeria; Banks, FMCG’s, Radio Stations etc, have continually promoted the culture of winning money without any effort. While their’s is a bit disappointing, the telcos have taken it up a notch.

They are abusing the fact that they have our numbers entrusted to them to look for dubious was to skim us off money.

Their ‘intelligent’ business model is this, everyday, spam your 20 million subscribers at no cost, then get say 1,000 00, 000 to pay N100 for the chance of winning N1 million and viola, they have a revenue of 100 Million of which N99 million is profit. (Note: in the message above N100 would be deducted daily)

This is immoral and criminal and should be stopped immediately.  the Telco’s are taking advantage and abusing their positions as the holders of our information.

Can you imagine if banks mass messaged all their customers asking for the deduction of N100 from their accounts for the chance to win big?*

These Telcos are the same people the Government of Nigeria has mandated us to submit all our personal data, including bio data to. What a huge shame!

In any decent promo, especially the one’s that cost money, participants are supposed to opt-in and have the  ability to opt-out easily.

I am hoping that the regulatory body NCC would look at this and stop these companies that already provide terrible service at very high cost  from fleecing us further.

With this ‘promo culture’ promoted by otherwise ‘reputable’ organizations rampant in our system, it is easy for people to fall for scams when yahoo boys send similar messages.

How do we stop this nonsense? How do we get the message in front of the right eyes?

Or am I the only one that has a problem with it?

*I will not be too surprised if someone submits a ‘brilliant proposal’ for this one day.