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.
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@aerialink.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.