Over 70 per cent of consumers have increased their time using a mobile phone during the current COVID-19 pandemic according to Statista, the web’s leading statistics database.
“Marketers in 2021 will continue to focus on initiating and growing customer relationships using native mobile-first channels like SMS, over-the-top social messaging platforms like WhatsApp as well as location-based marketing,” says Devon Meerholz, Chief Creative & Operations Officer of IMIMobile South Africa, a mobile and digital technologies specialist.
Unfortunately, Mr Meerholz also believes we’ll also see more cybercriminals latching onto mobile to convert their nefarious activities into hard cash.
“The fact that sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 45% of the world’s mobile payments, according to the GSM Association, means criminals can very quickly go from initiating contact over mobile to perpetrating fraud over mobile,” he says.
Mr Meerholz says South Africans need to guard access to their virtual personas in the same way they limit access to their physical spaces and provides the following tips for saying safe in the mobile realm:
Avoidance is usually the best route when it comes to companies promising deals that seem too good to be true. Don’t get into a debate, be polite, end the call and use your handset’s functionality to block the caller.
Legitimate firms are reachable across a variety of marketing platforms and, indeed, usually even via a bricks and mortar real world presence. If you feel uncomfortable talking to someone offering you a product or service via your mobile, ask them for another way to contact them.
Reputable mobile marketers usually include links to traditional, corporate websites in their SMSs to enable consumers to find out more or to take up the offer. Make sure any website links you click on end in .ZA or another reputable top-level domain not normally associated with local or overseas cybercriminals.
Companies worth transacting with will surely have the budget to call you. Any unsolicited commercial message that requires you to call the firm wanting your business is surely suspect.
Related to the above, mobile’s come a long way, but most reputable firms embarking on a mobile marketing campaign would include fixed line or toll free contact details in their messages.
Spelling mistakes in suspect text messages mean more than you think. Interviews with 419 scammers have revealed that spelling errors in dodgy emails that promise untold riches in exchange for a relatively modest processing or admin-related fee are designed to separate out those of us who pay attention to detail and those who don’t, and may therefore be easier to con.
Get to know the repeat offenders. You’ll save yourself plenty of frustration by remembering the calling location of companies and individuals that have annoyed you in the past or sounded way too suspect to get involved with. Dodgy firms often cluster together so remembering area codes is often worthwhile.
With African mobile telecoms spend estimated at some USD 15 billion annually, mobile marketing will continue to go from strength-to-strength on the back of the outstanding technology that helps make our lives easier and more rewarding. “A little common sense will go a long way when it comes to getting the best out of mobile and preventing unauthorised access to our mobile-centric lives,” concludes Mr Meerholz.
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