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The introduction of Lipa na M-Pesa (buy goods) provided a convenient way for customers to pay for goods and services. The best thing about the service to customers is that payments are free of charge.

One of the benefits of the service to businesses, according to the Safaricom website, is Customer Data. Basically businesses would be able to get and retain customer data after Lipa na M-Pesa payments. This reality became apparent for customers when some companies started sending them unsolicited promotional messages. Customers were not charged for the messages but they were still annoying.

The messages were kind of bearable until around May 2016 when messages from some companies coming in like Nairobi mosquitoes. Among the major culprits were Dial a Delivery (Galitos, Pizza Inn). Safaricom’s solution when contacted at the time was the wrong one. They were actually sharing a way to opt out of premium rate services, which isn’t exactly the same thing.

Some customers were told to get in touch with the companies behind the spam SMSs.

Some customers like Mwirigi took matters into their own hands and contacted the bulk SMS providers directly and asked to be removed from the SMS lists.

Safaricom have since implemented a solution that works. Here’s a step by step process on how to unsubscribe from promotional SMS messages on Safaricom.

1. Dial *100*5# on Prepaid or *200*5#

2. Select No. 5 ‘Marketing Messages’

3. Select No. 1 ‘Deactivate Marketing Messages’

4. Enter the name of the company that sends messages to you that you wish to deactivate.

It is case sensitive and you need to put the name as it appears in the text they send you. For instance Jumia Travel appears as ‘JumiaTravel’ and Tuskys Supermarkets as ‘TUSKYS’.