Mobile users are 'pickpocketed' of millions of dong every month

The customer calculated that by automatically installing dozens of value-added services, he was robbed of nearly one million VND per month when using multiple mobile numbers at the same time.

» 94,000 Vietnamese mobile phones are unaware of being 'pickpocketed' by a Chinese company

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has just issued a warning about violations of consumer rights related to value-added services on mobile phones, noting customersYou need to proactively learn and grasp information to use these services effectively, avoiding acts that infringe upon your rights...This warning was issued in the context that recently, many subscribers continue to be upset about the network operator automatically installing dozens of services without their knowledge.

The case of Mr. Duc (HCMC) is an example when he is using 4 phone numbers of one of the 3 major networks. He said that although he did not register, a few days ago, he suddenly received a number of messages "congratulating the successful installation" of a service from the switchboard. He immediately texted according to the instructions to cancel the service but it took many attempts to succeed. This customer also discovered that every month, he was being charged for 10 services that were automatically installed by the network operator, which could have been several years ago.

"Roughly calculating, with the above phone numbers, I get pickpocketed nearly 900,000 VND per month," said Mr. Duc. This customer also believes that with tens of millions of subscribers, the network operator can earn tens of billions of VND per month with the above method.

Many subscribers accuse network operators of automatically installing dozens of value-added services for customers. Photo: AQ

Not only old subscribers but also some customers using newly purchased phone SIMs have encountered the same situation. Mr. Tien (Cau Giay, Hanoi) just bought a "full kit" SIM from a major network. Immediately after activation, he recharged 100,000 VND and received a 100% promotion. After 30 minutes of recharging, he received a message informing him that a value-added service package had been successfully renewed and 70,000 VND had been deducted from the fee.

"I haven't had time to register for the service package, while the SIM card I just bought and have never used is why it was automatically renewed. I called the operator, the staff explained it briefly and blamed the SIM card dealer. They said the SIM card was activated by the dealer half a month ago, when the account runs out of money, the service package will stop being provided. When I top up the card, the network will automatically renew it," Mr. Tien recounted.

The "suspicion" that network operators automatically activate value-added services for customers has been raised for many years.Management agencies under the Ministry of Information and Communications have also received many reports about this situation.However, when explaining to customers and the press, telecommunications companies insist thatIt is impossible for the network operator to automatically register the service for customers in all cases.Currently, most value-added services are provided by network operators in cooperation with other companies, except for mobile data services or international roaming...

MobiFone representative also explained that currently, in addition to registering for the service via text message, customers can do it via website, wap, phone application, automatic switchboard, support phone operator...With registration forms such as web access, wap, application... the network representative admitted that due to not providing full information about the service to customers, it can easily lead to unexpected situations that are difficult for the subscriber to control.

However, according to an industry expert, the fact that the network operator completely pushes the fault onto the partner company is not entirely convincing. Because he believes that telecommunications enterprises can, in principle, standardize the customer registration process.

"For example, when a customer makes a mistake, clicks on a banner or registration link, a message must be sent to the customer to confirm the registration. Along with that, the network operator also needs to strictly censor the content that these companies provide to subscribers," the expert explained.However, this situation has been recurring for many years, showing the lack of goodwill of the network operator.A representative of the inspection agency of the Ministry of Information and Communications once admitted that, despite being very close, it is still difficult to detect violations by network operators, unless there is valid information and evidence provided by consumers themselves.

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There are currently no complete statistics to clarify how much value-added service providers and network operators have earned from "picking the pockets" of customers by automatically installing these services.However,Recently, the inspection results report ofSAM Media -When a value-added service provider is announced, customers will only know a part of the huge revenue figures of these units.

Specifically, from the beginning of 2013 to March 2016, subscribers of the four telecommunications networks Viettel, MobiFone, VinaPhone and Vietnamobile had to pay a total of VND230.5 billion. The number of customers using the service as of July 19 was nearly 94,000 subscribers.Many customers, when asked, did not know they were using the service and were being charged.Immediately afterwards, all three major carriers said they had stopped cooperating with C.ACOM Company (SAM Media's service provider on mobile networks in Vietnam).

"However, how many such companies exist and how many services are customers being forced to use and secretly deducted money without the subscriber knowing?", one customer was upset.

The representative of VAS Business Center - Viettel Telecom admitted that although there have been many measures to manage the cooperation in providing content services, due to the nature of the services being quite complex and diverse, violations have not been completely prevented.

Talking to VnExpress, Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung - Deputy General DirectorMobiFone alsoCommitted to strictly handling content service providers in the coming time if violations are detected."Up to now, we have decided to stop the cooperation contract to provide content services on the MobiFone network with partners who have violated the law," said Mr. Hung.In addition to committing to increase partner checks, carriers also said they will more closely control the registration process for these services in the coming time.

According to VNE