Etisalat SMS Spam

Exasperated, I have just received my fourth phone call from Etisalat, having registered a complaint that I receive too much SMS spam.

Unscrupulous government / bank / service provider staff have clearly sold lists of phone numbers to marketing companies, who then bombard the numbers they have with meaningless drivel and promotions which, judging from feedback from friends, no-one is interested in.

Apparently, there is a mechanism to block unwanted senders, but it doesn't work at the moment. This is a formatted SMS to an Etisalat registered code, and has been 'active' for quite some time. I even tried using it a few years back, but more messages pour in.

The solution I was given today (and yesterday, and the day before) was to call the private companies themselves, and 'deregister' my phone number. This is only going to highlight my number as active, and invite further unwanted spam SMS. 

I have a list of twenty companies currently spamming me, and I do not have the time or the energy to call each one and explain to the numpty at the other end that I wish my number to be removed from their SMS system.
Sorry, but, no.

A message to Etisalat - create an option for people to opt out of all marketing SMSs, and publicise it. You will win many more subscribers.

Rant over.

Cheers,

Rucker