Blacklisted: Words to avoid when sending bulk SMS

If you’re reading this, chances are you might have encountered a block on delivery of some bulk SMS you sent, or perhaps you’re hearing about blacklisted words for the first time. It’s no news whichever way. Like it or not, there are some legality guiding SMS marketing in Nigeria.

Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) restricts the use of certain words when sending bulk SMS from any bulk SMS portal whether such words are used in the sender ID or the message body. If you use these words, your messages would not deliver.

Talk about the Karmas of SMS marketing! But these rules are there for obvious reasons which we would explain in this article. Here, we have detailed a list of blacklisted words as regulated by the NCC so you can avoid them when drafting your messages to ensure a high delivery rate.

Why do we have Blacklisted words?      

Spamming

Spamming is sending unsolicited messages mostly advertisements or junk texts to people who didn’t subscribe for such messages. It is easily considered as an encroachment on recipients’ privacy or an intention to defraud recipients. Therefore certain words classified as spam by the NCC are blacklisted.

Fraud

Certain words are classified as fraudulent, using them would give most people the perception that the sender is trying to defraud them. Most of these words are usually about lottery wins or gifts to recipients. They are blacklisted for their fraudulent nature.

List/Categories of Blacklisted words

So here are the categories of blacklisted words;

Words blocked for sender IDs:

FBI, CIA, Interpol, Interp0l, 1nterp0l, FBI, CIA, Buhari, EFCC, MTN, 180, 181, 121, ETISALAT, 9Mobile, Glo NG, MTNNG, MTNB0NUS, M’T’NNG, M’T’NNG, +MTNNG, M’T’NNG, CBN, 131, NOLLYWOOD, AIRTEL, AIRTEL NG, GL0NG, 18O, M`TNNG, M’TNNG, M’TNNG, GTBank, GTB, GTB Ekenwan, GTB Uselu, GTB, GTB Ekenwa, 777, 4100, MTN Nig, MTN-Nigeria, GTB, FCMB, Zenith, access, bank, prophetic, APC, PDP, INEC, UBA, UBA Bank (and any other bank names.

Banks have registered sender IDs encoded in their messaging portals).

Words blocked for message body:

vote, whatsapp, code, elect, election, financial, congrats, congratulation, wow, sex, promo, fuck, diamond, yello, raffle, Globacom, buhari, win, yellow, congrats, congratulations, promotion, promotions, winning, won, wada, Yell0w, survey, surveyor, hurray, facebook, twitter, instagram, yahoo.com, APC, PDP, YDP, and any bank-related messages.

Words blocked for spam reasons:

million, lottery, promo, gbp, congrat!, congrat, congratulation!, congratulation, pounds, dollars, euros, euro, raffle, money, won, you have won, you won, win now, winner, winning number, win, winner, winning, survey, surveys, scratch and win, million dollars, prize, n2million, mtn, glo, airtel, etisalat, 9mobile, congratulations promo won call, pr0m0 w0n call, prom0 w0n call, pr0mo w0n call, promo won call, hurray w0n call, hurray won call, won prize call, raffle draw, w0n prize call, pr0m0 prize call, prom0 prize call, pr0mo prize call, Tracking Number, reply @, wow, JAMB, UTME, call.

Note that these words can be updated at any time, so don’t be surprised if you discover new blocked words that are not included here.

You might want to avoid using blacklisted words so as to avoid wastage of resources when your messages don’t go through.

If you are using blacklisted words but still experience trouble delivering messages to MTN numbers, read on how to deliver messages to MTN numbers on SMSexperience.

Keeping our business integrity and in compliance with the regulations, SMSexperience has equally integrated these blacklisted words to our platform so your messages may not deliver when you send them using or containing some of these words.

This was done to serve you and your recipients better. To speak with a SMSexperience SMS expert about technicalities surrounding your SMS campaign, kindly call 07068832575.

Keep up the integrity and enjoy super-fast and efficient SMS deliveries!