Thousands of unwanted SMSs sent to your mobile phone can be blocked for free.
UAE residents receive endless spam SMSs daily on their mobile phones — from massage parlour offers to new promotions and discounts on certain brands to visa and immigration offers.
To protect residents from these promotional SMSs, the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) in 2009 introduced a policy against mobile spam that ordered UAE telecom companies to provide an option for customers to request blocking of spam through the ‘opt-out’ option. This enables mobile phone users who receive spam SMSs to send a message to a certain number to block that company from sending anything in the future.
How to block unwanted SMSes
— To block a specific sender, type “b”, space then the sender ID or number and send to 7726.
— You may also opt to block promotional messages coming directly from your telecom company, etisalat or du, by sending an SMS, although they usually have an opt-out option in the message.
— For du users, simply send a blank SMS to 5293. On du’s website, it says the request “will be processed in 40 days.” But du users may choose to reactivate these promotional messages by sending a blank SMS to 7000.
— To know all the sender ID’s and short codes you’ve blocked, just type ‘GET’ and send it to 7726. Other commands are available if you text ‘HELP’ to 7726.
— For etisalat users, if you wish to block their promotional messages, just type “b etisalat” to 7726. But you can easily subscribe again by sending “u etisalat” to 7726 any time.
— To block all third parties from sending you messages, simply send “ball” to 7726. To undo this, just send “uall” to 7726.
Do you have more info to add to the article, kindly leave them on the comments below.
