In this political campaign season, you would most likely be receiving lots of unsolicited campaign messages in both text and voice notes. Already, the ruling NPP has started and social media is rife with complaints. If you are interested in such messages, good for you. But if you are not, this is how you can help yourself.
MTN
Write BLOCK (space) SENDER’S NAME as displayed on top of the message and send it to 1309. For example, in the case of the recent NPP message, the sender name that came with it was NPP, even though there is a short code behind that name. So what you can do is to simply send BLOCK NPP to 1309, and you would be fine.
VODAFONE
Dial *463# and follow the prompts to block all unsolicited communications. If it does not work call the Vodafone call center on 100 or reach out to them on their social media pages.
AIRTELTIGO
Send STOP to the short code that sent you the message. In the case of the NPP message, just reply it with the world STOP, and that should suffice. But if it does not stop then report to AirtelTigo via either their call center on 100 or send a message to any of their social media platforms.
GLO
Glo does not even allow third party short codes to send messages to their customers, so if you are on Glo, you are totally free from that nuisance.
NCA
After you have exhausted all the complaint channels on your network to no avail, you cal alternatively report to the National Communications Authority (NCA) via a number of channels as follow:
1. Call 0307011419
2. Email: complaints@nca.org.gh
3. Weblink http://nca.org.gh/40/125/Make-a-Complaint.html
Or
4. Just walk into the NCA office and make a direct complaint
By law, it is NCA that gives approval to short codes used for such mobile content from third party companies like Hubtel, Mobile Content, Sumus Mobile, Text Ghana and others before the telcos activate those short codes.
The telcos get to see and approve of such bulk messages before they are distributed, but they have no control on who the messages are sent. It is like you sending SMS to a friend on same network or even another network. The network cannot control who you send the SMS to and in fact what message you send, unless they receive a complaint.
Once the short codes are active, the owners use them to send messages to contacts they acquired from event organizers and other institutions who collect our data when we attend events or visit those institutions. They do so without our permission. The impression that telcos give our details to third party organizations to send those messages to us is erroneous even though it is possible.
But we can always block after receiving the first message.
Don’t sit back and just complain; act.
