To reduce “telephone marketing” .. warnings to banks .. and the feature to show the caller’s number and name will be circulated soon

The Department of Economic Development in Abu Dhabi confirmed sending warnings and official warning messages to banks whose employees practiced telemarketing, at a time when the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority and the Digital Government revealed that the coming period will witness the generalization of the application of the caller number display feature to all facilities operating in the country, and showing the names of the connected entity and the caller. .

Alarms and messages

Head of the Monitoring and Inspection Department at the Department of Economic Development in Abu Dhabi, Ahmed Tarish Al Qubaisi, said that the department sent warnings to banks in the country, and sent official warning letters to banks, asking them to stop and not repeat practices of their employees, especially marketing and promoting loans and credit cards over the phone. After the department received complaints from consumers, despite the recent circular by the "Abu Dhabi Economy" regarding stopping telemarketing.

Consumer rights

Finally, Al-Qubaisi added in televised statements, that the department can reach those involved in telemarketing, even if they are talking from mobile phones in their names, and not in the name of the entity they work for, through full coordination with the Communications Regulatory Authority and the Digital Government, pointing out that it has been reached. To a specific mechanism for reporting the numbers of those who are marketing by telephone.

Al Qubaisi stressed that the consumer has the right to ask the caller about his name, the name of the company or bank in which he works, and the phone number, indicating that Abu Dhabi Economy can reach the company and take legal measures against it in a short period, especially companies registered in Abu Dhabi. Pointing out that consumers are partners of the department and should report telemarketing practices that cause them inconvenience.

drastic solutions

Al Qubaisi stressed that the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development aims to reach radical solutions to this phenomenon, which causes inconvenience to consumers, especially that telemarketing may be linked to fraud, noting that telemarketing should not be at the expense of the comfort and safety of community members.

He pointed out that some telemarketing practitioners, especially from banks, real estate companies, and trading, target a conscious and informed audience, and therefore, services can be promoted to the target audience through social media instead of the phone.

He stressed that the coming period will witness more coordination with the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency, in order to reach the parties involved in telemarketing and take the necessary measures against them.

big challenge

For his part, Director of the Quality Approval Department at the Communications Regulatory Authority and Digital Government, Ahmed Al Shamsi, said: “Sometimes there is a practice of promoting over the phone through numbers that do not show their identity to the caller, whether through mobile or landline numbers, and therefore the caller may not represent the company he speaks for. Indeed,” stressing that annoying communications are a major challenge facing consumers.

Al Shamsi added that the UAE is one of the first countries to activate the feature of displaying the name of the connected entity from the private sector, after 18 months of efforts, in cooperation with telecom service providers in the country: Etisalat and Du.

He stressed that the coming period will witness the generalization of the application of the feature of displaying the caller's number to all establishments operating in the country, and showing the names of the connected entity and the caller.

He explained that despite the authority's interest in applying this feature to the banking sector, the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency is concerned with all sectors, and does not exclude any of them, and works to maintain consumers' comfort and not be exposed to annoying communications.

Financial fine

It is noteworthy that the Department of Economic Development in Abu Dhabi revealed, in exclusive statements to «Emirates Today», finally, the start of imposing penalties that include fines ranging between 3000 and 10 thousand dirhams, up to closure, on violating commercial establishments that practice telemarketing. In the emirate, in violation of the circular issued by the department not to practice telemarketing.

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