Spam.sg

A new anti-Spam law came into effect at the beginning of June which tries to give consumers better rights when receiving unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE). It applies to e-mail and phone text messages (SMS) and requires that the text ADV be placed at the beginning of the Subject Line (or the beginning of the text if, like SMS, there's no subject). And secondly, that there be an Unsubscribe mechanism clearly included.

I've seen these ADV things for a while and completely ignored them. Duh. The first SMS I received had the ADV misspelt (double duh!) and to reply with an unsubscribe costs me money. So, that's not working out too well then.

Then I read of a story about the only Singaporean working on Beijing Olympics who has a local mobile but kept his home one also and is racking up roaming charges on received SPAM, so much so he's going to have to cancel his SG phone.

It's a tough nut to crack for sure, and it's easy to criticise, but these rules only apply to the responsible, local, law-abiding originators. In my case, that's maybe 0.1% of what clogs my Trash folder everyday.