How the Yes campaign got your phone number

It can be revealed how the Australian Marriage Equality team claims to have sent a pro same-sex marriage text message to thousands of Australians randomly.

It follows the release of unsolicited messagessent by “YesEquality” on Saturday, asking people to “Vote Yes for a fairer Australia”.

Recipients were urged to "Help make history" and directed to the Equality Campaign's website.

Many took to Facebook and Twitter saying they felt "violated" and questioned how their phone numbers were obtained.

Australian Marriage Equality claims the numbers were randomly generated by a technology platform use by political parties during election campaigns, News Corp reports.

AME co-chair Alex Greenwich said on Saturday the campaign was using “every resource available” and “thousands of Australians” had volunteered to door knock.

“The campaign has a responsibility to encourage every Australian to post their survey and we have done this through door knocking, media, advertising, social media and SMS messaging,” he said.

A number of mobile marketing industry leaders have questioned AME’s explanation with one based out of Sydney saying they’ve “never heard of that product”.

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They also suggested it wasn’t particularly cost-effective because telcos would still charge for every single message sent.

“If you’re randomly generating five million numbers and potentially only getting through to one million, you’re still charged for five million attempts,” they said.

Another industry leader based in Melbourne said the cost is the main reason they wasn’t more spam texting in Australia.

“The point for me is that’s not something the industry I’m in is involved in, recommends or promotes in any way, shape or form — because it’s spam,” they said.

However, another believed while the practice of auto-generating and mass texting to numbers wasn’t common in a non-profit organisation it was still possible.

They also said it was a cost-effective way of generating a database of phone numbers and added it could cost as little as two cents a message.

While many have complained about the texts, the Australian Communications and Media Authority says they are fine because they aren’t being used for a commercial purpose and aren’t asking for donations.

An ACMA spokeswoman said the SMS campaign is not under investigation.