Frm a fren mr exxxx cxxxx – To all my associates. Dubaimlm is giving out FREE credit card with a USD 500 awarded upon signup. Im shring this wth u. pls login w.w.w.dubaimlm.com and my id. II0044xxx. gd luck. tq exxxx. pls signup ur geng too.

Even before checking things out deeper, alarm bells already started ringing:
- beware of anything that says “free” in big letters, and anything the promises free money.
- misspellings and improperly constucted sentences in SMSes are common, but it suggests lack of professionalism on the senders’ part.

Later, digging deeper, I can say the following: do not join this!

The site is affiliated with one Phil Picollo, a notorious scammer.

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.

source

Tags: SMS, spam, SMS spam, telcos, mobile content providers, content providers

Tags: blog, blogging, problogger

THE Swiss Cash fund, an Internet-based investment programme promoted by Swiss Mutual Fund, has not been approved nor endorsed by the Securities Commission (SC).

SC and Bank Negara Malaysia issued a statement yesterday to inform the public that they should only invest through parties that have been licensed by the authorities.

"When in doubt, the public should check with Bank Negara, the SC or other relevant authority on the licensing status of the local or foreign company before making any investment," they said.

Swiss Mutual Fund, they said is not licensed nor exempted from licensing by Bank Negara to accept deposits. It is also not licensed by the SC to carry out asset management activities or services in Malaysia.

Swiss Cash fund is an Internet-based investment programme promoted by Swiss Mutual Fund, a fund management company claimed to be registered overseas. It offers the funds through the Internet and local agents.

Members of the public are advised to contact the SC and Bank Negara for enquiries on the fund at the following numbers: 03-62048999 (SC), 03-26910824 (Bank Negara).

More reasons why this is a scam:

• http://tuahemas.com/blog/e-biz/swisscash-scam/
• http://www.tuahemas.com/forum/showthread.php?t=105&highlight=swiss+cash
• http://www.scamfraudalert.com/showthread.php?t=1191

Swiss Embassy warning:

• http://www.eda.admin.ch/kualalumpur_emb/e/home.html

Doing a whois query turned this up:

Nama co: Reality Dreams Education
Nama: Razif
Emel: awekkulim3580@yahoo.com
Tempat:    Kuala lumpur
Poskod: 53330
Tel: 012-2633063
Reg: Feb 2006
Exp: Feb 2007

Don’t even think of joining! I don’t think they’ll even bother to renew the domain lease next year.