Spam callers beware: SA is tightening the rules

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JEREMY MAGGS: South Africans, I read, were hit with an estimated 17.4 billion spam calls in just the first six months of this year. That is an astonishing amount, and regulators are conceding that unwanted direct marketing is out of control. Now the National Consumer Commission (NCC) is preparing to launch something called a national opt-out registry that could allow consumers to block individual marketers or the industry altogether. But will the people actually making these calls obey it?

I’m in conversation now with Pheto Ntaba, who speaks for the National Consumer Commission. Pheto, welcome to you. Why should South Africans believe this registry is going to stop spam when the existing rules clearly haven’t?

PHETO NTABA: Consumers must really believe that this registry is going to assist them, at least elevate. But it will depend on consumers registering their names and opting out from this unwanted direct marketing of these companies. But what is important on the side of the of the direct marketer, it is now an obligation that before running any campaign, once the system we have launched is up and running, they will be forced to register their profiles, more like apply, to be a direct market in South Africa.

So it is an obligation. If they run a campaign without registering and cleansing their marketing list, they would have contravened the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) and these regulations.

So from the side of a direct marketer, it’s an obligation. On the side of the consumer, it’s really them saying, I am tired of unwanted direct marketing calls or emails, let me then go and use the NCC’s national opt-out registry.

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JEREMY MAGGS: Let me pick you up on direct marketers themselves having to register. All well and good. But what makes you think the operators who are already ignoring consumer law are suddenly going to volunteer to comply?

PHETO NTABA: Like I said, it’s an obligation. Now, if they run a campaign or call consumers, especially if [someone] says I have opted out from company A and they called me 30 days after opting out. That’s a clear contravention. We then investigate and take that supplier to the National Consumer Tribunal (NTC) because they are required under the CPA to register and cleanse their list so that they remove consumers who have opted out from that particular direct marketing, either a general opt-out or just to say, you can email me, don’t SMS, don’t call.

So the onus is on the direct marketers themselves to respect the Consumer Protection Act and register, it’s a once-off process of registration.

Cleansing takes place on a monthly basis with a fee of 12 cents per data. So if they don’t want the NCC to investigate and take them to the tribunal, it’s going to assist them to register on the registry. Then when we are ready to launch and then we say, as of this date, you can no longer call consumers without cleansing your list.

But it’s important, Jeremy, that consumers utilise the registry. And when they receive a call and they have opted out, they notify us so that we can follow up on those direct marketers and really force them to respect the Consumer Protection Act.

JEREMY MAGGS: As I understand it, the rules provide for fines of up to R1 million, or 10% of annual turnover. So two questions from that. First of all, do you have the capacity to investigate? And how many companies do you realistically expect to prosecute or fine?

PHETO NTABA: We have the capacity to investigate. I think when you look at that section, everything is electronic. When a consumer says, I received an email from supplier A, and I know I’ve opted out. We look at the consumer’s records, and look at what they are providing, and already we start investigating.

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We don’t know how many direct marketers we’re expecting to register on the system. We’ve got fluctuating figures, but we’re expecting a lot, and we see they are registering in numbers, meaning that they really want to do what is right. They want to respect and comply with the Consumer Protection Act.

Right now, we don’t know whether, all the direct marketers are going to register. They are going to cleanse their list before running any campaign.

We might expect to see some saying, well, we’ll just wait for whenever they catch us. But this is where we are saying to consumers to come forward if you still see these numbers and you know you have opted out.

What is also essential, and with the regulations, direct marketers are required to introduce themselves. They must be identifiable. You can no longer receive a robot call. When you pick up, they say, hello, are you under debt review, or something like that. They need to introduce themselves immediately when you pick up a call so that you can say I’ve opted out. Or if you have not opted out as a consumer, you quickly go into the registry and opt out so that they don’t call you 30 days later.

So it is an obligation. In terms of investigation powers, we do have powers and capacity to do so. Then also, in terms of the direct marketers, we don’t know how many we are expecting and we don’t know how many will comply with the CPA.

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JEREMY MAGGS: There’s also a distinction, is there not, between irritating marketing and outright criminal scams, which are also on the increase in South Africa. Is your registry going to do anything at all about fraudsters, particularly those spoofing numbers, or operating outside South Africa, which again has become a big problem.

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PHETO NTABA: In terms of scams, actually, we are hoping to sift the two distinctions that this is out and out unwanted direct marketing, and we deal with those ones. With scams, from the side of the NCC, and we will then refer those matters to other authorities like the SAPS (South African Police Service), depending on the nature of that particular scam.

So it will be important again for consumers when they say, look, we have been receiving these calls, and this is what these people are doing, and I lost X amount of money. And working with other regulators, the likes of Icasa (Independent Communications Authority of South Africa) and so on, that will be able to follow up on those cases. We really hope that when consumers really use the system and report these cases, we will be able to get closer to getting to the operators of those particular scams or the scammers.

When it comes to international calls, as much as we don’t really have jurisdiction, especially if a supplier doesn’t have visibility or offices in South Africa, but we do work with other regulators from other countries …

So we have our own arrangement that when we receive this complaint, be it like your normal complaint under goods and services or scams, we then refer to those particular regulators for them to facilitate, especially where we are now able to say this particular person or company is based in this country, here are the contact details and so on.

So we’ve got this arrangement with really powerful regulators under the Consumer Protection Act throughout the country.

JEREMY MAGGS: Pheto Ntaba, thank you very much indeed. You speak for the National Consumer Commission. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

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