How does a company get access to your phone number?
According to statistics, millions of people are
connected to mobile phones, and many of them own a smartphone. Since the population is estimated to be just over 58 million, that would mean that many households own more than one mobile phone. As far as marketing goes, statistics show that while email campaigns have a 22% open rate, SMS campaigns have a significantly higher 98% open rate. These statistics make a clear case as to why USSD is a powerful mobile marketing messaging channel. What does USSD mean?
USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is a Global System for Mobile Communications protocol that is used to send text messages. USSD is similar to Short Message Service (SMS).
For example, say an organization like Liveduuka wanted to attract business people for an event. They could advertise on social media with free WiFi vouchers when people come for lunch during the week. USSD code can be used to redeem such vouchers could This code gives customers a pin that is valid for a certain period of time.
The question you should ask yourself now is.
Have you ever subscribed to any promotional, say free data or free SMS/Minutes from a telecom company?
If yes, have you ever followed up to analyze the sponsor of such a promotion?
Here comes a tricky part. Whenever you dial USSD code for example *100*1#, there is the server that receives your request, and then handles it. This means that such a server is able to get access to your phone number (Requester).
The interesting part comes . How does a company get access to your phone number?
Once the server receives your phone number, it can decide to store it. Either for statistics or future SMS sending to subscribers. That’s why sometimes you receive an advertising SMS from an unknown company and you be like WHY??