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COVID-19 Messaging Best-Practices – March 2020

Many industries worldwide are mobilizing to combat the spread of COVID-19 in whatever way they can. Text messaging is also playing its role, with many excellent use-cases related to wellness and awareness hitting the mobile ecosystem. Unfortunately, spammers are looking to capitalize on the prevalence of coverage and public concern surrounding COVID-19. We must all work together to ensure COVID-19 spam does not gain a foothold in our network by vetting customer use-cases and keeping an eye out for any that seem fraudulent or maliciously opportunistic. Here are some examples of problematic COVID-19 use cases:

  • Fraudulent/phishing messages claiming to be official notices from the government or other sources including links to web forms requesting personal information. 
  • Loan opportunities looking to sign people up during a difficult financial period.
  • Marketing for test kits, masks or other materials that take advantage of public concern.

These are merely a few of the ways spammers are using the COVID-19 outbreak to abuse text messaging. 

So, how do I minimize my legitimate COVID-19 messaging traffic from getting blocked?

Great question and one we have an answer for as well. 

Essentially we need details regarding use-cases, so we could submit those to carriers to get them approved. You will need to provide detailed response to the seven questions below.

  1. What is the use-case (in this case, as it pertains to COVID-19)?
  2. What number(s) are associated with the use-case?
  3. If multiple numbers, why? 
  4. Each number will need to be justified. Is the content provider a fortune 500 or 1,000 company?
  5. What is the monthly traffic volume?
  6. How do end-users opt-in? 
  7. Where is the code advertised (if anywhere)?

Mobile carriers are extremely critical of COVID-19 use cases, and the rest of us must be equally critical. If you see your customers running traffic related to coronavirus, give it a good look. Ensure it is providing a legitimate service promoting wellness or awareness. If you are ever unsure, feel free to email support@tsgglobal.wpengine.com with examples of the traffic for a second opinion. Our compliance experts are happy to partner with all of you on keeping our traffic free from COVID-19 spam.

Written by:
noah_rafalko
Published on:
March 24, 2020

Categories: Blog

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