TRA issues clarification to subscribers on how to deal with spam SMS

Committed to transparency and protecting the interests of the UAE telecoms subscribers, the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) clarified to the public the means to block Spam SMSs that reach their mobile phones.
In this regard, H.E. Mohamed Al Ghanim, TRA Director General, stated: "We received some inquiries on how to face such a quantity of Spam SMSs that reach the subscribers' mobile phones, hence, we would like to clarify that Spam SMSs that broadcast files to be downloaded by the mobile holder are considered a hacking tool.
“Therefore, we advice the subscribers not to accept the file; bearing in mind that the text SMS in itself is not dangerous, the danger lies in the file when the subscriber accepts to download. Furthermore, we advice subscribers not to give their phone numbers to entities and parties that are unknown to them." "As for the means to block these Spam SMSs, the two licensed telecoms operators have been interested in facing such a problem. ‘du' is working on a parallel solution, which once launched, will enable subscribers to block Spam SMSs. Once a service is blocked, subscribers will also have the option to unblock the service in case they wish to continue receiving messages from the source.
“As for ‘etisalat', it already provides the service of blocking Spam SMSs where their subscribers may block the short numbers and the source of the message through sending a text SMS including the letter ‘b' or the word ‘block' followed by the number of the SMS source to 1011; then the message source will automatically be blocked," concluded Al Ghanim.