Daylight robbery via SMS spam in Malaysia
This is an invitation for everybody to set up their own “SMS infoservice” to make a fast buck. And this has been going on for years.
As reported by New Straits Times, 27th Nov, these guys send you SMSes, and you have to pay for them! But each time it’s a few cents only (perhaps 15 sen), so you hardly notice. But the total that these many “mobile phone content providers” make runs into the millions.
We’ve all received them. They bombard us handphone users with unsolicited downloads and SMS, such as ringtone offers. Whether one accepts the downloads or cancels them, a fee is charged.
The National Consumer Complaints Centre (NCCC) and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), the regulator of the telecommunications industry, are aware of this.
NCCC manager Darshan Singh said the cost of an unsolicited download was RM3 while sending a cancellation message is 15 sen.
And of course nobody would want to through the hassle of obtaining refunds.
This happens mostly to prepaid users, who don’t get statements from the telcos, and don’t usually check their balance all the time.
At the end of 2005, there were 20.5 million handphone users in the country and 17.5 million of them prepaid users.
Telcos sometimes ALSO provide content. In this way, they’re also guilty.
Darshan gave one example. During the World Cup some customers received free match updates but many customers failed to realise they were charged 15 sen for cancelling the service, which was unsolicited in the first place. When this was brought it up to the MCMC, the company concerned agreed to refund the money, but in reality, there’s no followup.
Darshan revealed that the NCCC received 1,087 telecommunication industry-related complaints in 2005, and 1,403 complaints up to June this year. Most were about being charged for unsolicited downloads. He also said that the Consumer Claims Tribunal heard 73 cases concerning telcos last year. Until August this year, another 93 cases had been filed.
He further said that telcos ARE responsible for screening content by content providers.
Solution: The MCMC is acting on the complaints. A working group comprising telcos, the MCMC and content providers revised guidelines on the provision of mobile content and services in July.
In the discussion on this at monsterblog, someone who worked in 2 telcos and now works in a content provider company offered the following trick on how not get any unsolicited SMS messages:
1) NEVER subscriber or use any of their services.
2) Ensure that your mobile number is not a recycled number. If you’ve just bought a new prepaid number, it may be that the previous owner of that number downloaded or subscribed to an SMS service. The telcos do not inform the content providers that they’ve recycled their numbers, therefore the content provider’s records would not be updated and think you’re the same user.
3) NEVER respond to any unsolicited SMS message. Take note of the shortcode whether it’s 3xxxx or 2xxxx.If you want to lodge a complaint, here’s a tip:
1) Check if the unsolicited SMS came from a 3xxxx shortcode, or 2xxxx shortcode. If it’s a 3xxxx shortcode, that means it came from a content provider and you should contact the content provider hotline. If the shortcode starts from 2xxxx, you should contact your telco because the service came from your telco.
Tags: SMS, spam, SMS spam, telcos, mobile content providers, content providers
