PETALING JAYA: Scrutinise your mobile phone bills thoroughly or you may end up paying for “unsolicited services.”
Users can be charged up to RM100 extra for various types of content sent via short-messaging service (SMS) by external providers who hook up with network providers.
However, the policy of the network providers over such SMSes is not clear.
When contacted by The Star, a customer service officer said mobile phone users were charged once the SMS was despatched — even if the user does not read the SMS. “We cannot do anything about it,” the officer said.
“Once they send out an SMS to you, you will be charged.” But another officer from the company said the user would have to reply with a certain code before a charge was imposed.
Such SMSes cost between RM2 and RM5 each, and many customers have complained that their monthly bills have spiked with such unsolicited charges. Some complained that these SMSes were usually only sent to supplementary lines.
“We are so busy that we usually do not check their details. Why is it that I have never had such SMSes sent to my main line?” one user said. Questions are also being raised as to how the content providers got hold of the mobile numbers.
Richard Wong from Tawau claimed he was charged about RM100 in his October bill for such services, adding that the amount was slapped on his son’s prepaid line.
“The prepaid amount from my son’s mobile line was deducted on a regular basis without his knowledge.” The issue has even been highlighted by certain bloggers, with one describing such unsolicited SMS services as a “scam”.
There are presently 29.62 million mobile phone users in the country, 6.2 million of them postpaid and the rest prepaid.
A DiGi Telecommunications Bhd spokesman said the company had no fixed arrangement with content providers, adding that its mobile number database was not released to them.
“Customers must have performed certain downloads in the past or have given consent to businesses to receive selected information.”
“The content providers must have kept the subscribers’ mobile numbers to cross-sell or promote their services.”
A Maxis Bhd official said a preventive system was put in place since 2007, whereby users were automatically protected from receiving unsolicited SMSes from unauthorised parties.
Author: Joshua Foong
Source: TheStar Online
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=da748dca-7e5c-416e-b348-cdfd1408b133)