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Jeff, you and the others who have written here have so eloquently set out your grievances here. Why? just because the crooks and thieves here sit happily in some air-conditioned office?

Fact of the matter is all you guys have been way-laid. Your pockets have been emptied and if not for body, your pride has been injured. Tell me, how different is this from if you were mugged, snatch thieved, robbed, way-laid or whatever? How different are these thieves from those guys on motor-bikes? No different isn't it? So why waste time writing here. Take the evidence and go straight to the police!

Ah!, But out police? Now that is another story isn't it? If it was crooks on motor-bikes they are happy to act....No political fall outs there. Now this kind of thieving, you will need to have the attorney general directing the IGP and he then directing the commercial crime division and so on. And to get the attorney general to make a statement, the ball has to start rolling with a pissed off UMNO MP who brings this out in parliament. Pak Lah has got to hear it and get sufficiently a earful and then he has got to direct the attorney general.

Now if I was one of those crooks how I'd wish the ACA will take over the investigation. Afterall they are so good at exonerating anyone important that they investigate. Now that being the case, are you wasting your time bringing up this subject?

I once bought a prepaid in Paka, Terengganu. Everytime I topped up, an unsolicited sms is sent to me, by an external content provider, and BY RECEIVING THE UNSOLICITED SMS, I was billed 2 ringgit. EACH TIME.

I threw away that simcard. I didn't complain because it was a small cost to me.

But multiply this experience by hundreds and thousands to the millions, siapa yang untung???

Somebody somewhere is robbing Malaysians in broad daylight, and they wear with white collar shirts.

Ini semua case tiuna singwich ni.

From 2004 to 2005, I had on many occassions received charges from my telco for ECP services that I never requested, required, utilised nor received.

At that time, my telco stand was, it's your phone no therefore it's yours.

Despite my numerous requests, my telco refused to block SMSs from ECPs nor to pre-filter out their charges, if any prior sending out the statement. I had to pay first only to be credited later on a goodwill basis!

Moreover, in no circumstances did I gave my consent nor authorised my telco to charge me . And obviously my telco could not provide me the document when asked.

I did not enjoy what my telco had put me thru nor agreeable that they had chosen to act as collecting agent for the ECPs; moreso in my case, unauthorised. Since then I gave up my few lines with them.

We being users have very little control as long as the telcos insist to act as the collecting agent for the ECPs. Can they?

MCMC, please do something! The rakyat is suffering.

Hi, Jeff,

Since this matter of SMS spam and scam is already out in the open, I would like to offer you the email correspondences I have had with both MCMC and Maxis' customer care over the past two months. They are nothing confidential. Everything is at my blog below.

SS Quah
Penang, Malaysia
ssquah.wordpress.com

Sigh.

The Celcos are sticking their dirty fingers up our arses and charging us for it.

By the way, all the grouses seem to come from Maxis users. How about the others? Do tell.

Dear Observer,
Thank god you are not running the country. A crime under regulation are subject to respective regulated body to carried out the job. Only if the crime go beyond regulation. Bare in mind that Bolehland IGP are not professional enough to handle such case! Not unless it involve "hard core" crime that IGP are expert on it. (woops)

Think about the reason of country like USA establish FCC. And think about FBI vs their police forces.

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Now where is the ball going to ding dong? MITI? Since it involve consumer rights. But MCMC are suppose to be regulate the telco.

Let me borrow entry from wikipedia on Mobile phone spam

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On 12 April 2006, Singapore authorities has imposed a SGD$150,000 fine to mTouche content provider for unauthorised Use of End User Information and Unsolicited, Chargeable SMSes.

On October 5, 2006, the California Public Utilities Commission issued a settlement decision in Utility Consumers' Action Network (UCAN)[1] v. Sprint Telephony PCS[2], Case 05-07-021[3]. UCAN alleged that Sprint violated California law by sending customers unsolicited text message advertisements for Sprint services and charging customers $0.10 per message[4]. In the settlement, Sprint agreed to stop charging customers for Sprint advertisements and committed to identifying and fully crediting all affected customers[5].

On January 31, 2007, a federal court preliminarily approved the first settlement of an unsolicited text message class action in the United States[6]. Under the settlement, class members are expected to receive as much as $150.00 per person[7]. The lawsuit was brought under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 -- a federal statute designed to combat unsolicted calls to cellular telephones, paging devices, and fax machines. The lawsuit was brought by Blim & Edelson[8], a Chicago-based class action firm.

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Let's come back to Bolehland, see the US year 1991 protection act? See that. Now check MCMC back home, and now check what happens to the biggest animal show in the country.

The unscrupulous CP and associate telco should be punished.

I remember there was a similar case in Singapore where a subsidiary of a MESDAQ listed SMS service provider had charged mobile users there for unsolicited or opt-in premium SMS services. Subsequently, the IDA (i.e. MCMC equivalence in Sg) there acted on it rather quickly, fined the company for a few hundred thousand Sing$$ and also banned it from offering SMS service.

The above is just a recall from my memory. Sorry I could not be more specific on this as I don’t have time to do the research and provide more details. May be some good fellow blog readers can assist, google around and provide the missing links or details. For the new case that had been dug up by Jeff, I am sure many many millions of hard earned ringgit of many many thousands ordinary and hard working Malaysians are at stake. These are fellow Malaysians who may not have the luxury of POST-paid mobile phones and itemized billings. MCMC must do something and punish those who cheat and steal. And do it fast, no matter who own or behind these companies or whatever form of goodies (e.g. pink forms, nice food, karaoke sessions, nice chocolate, attractive monthly “rent”, etc) offered by them.

I was maxis prepaid user for almost 9 years. Have rec'd alot of Spam SMS and do not know if I was charged or not. That's one of the reasons why I stop using Maxis.

I have been working in one of those SMS sending companies before and based on my experience, big TELCOS are partly to be blamed but the main culprit is not them.

Basically there are alot of independent SMS services companies in Malaysia which had been generating profit tremendously and some even been offered the MSC status for tax exemption prior to it declared as an IT company.

These companies generates profit through SMS contents subscriptions where users will be charged upon receiving smses. Part of the charges (as in profit) will be given to TELCOS upon agreement.

It is the responsibility of those small companies that has been operating to be ethical in this issue. The company which I had been working did have the policy of non returnable charges.

To counter the attack, i think one will have to personally go to those sms companies to request for removing of your number which is called (MSISDN) for their term from their database.

Else, you'll need to know specific sms to send to the shortcodes(owned by the companies) to terminate the charged sms subscriptions.

Thanks for highlighting this matter. Prior to this I seldom scrutinize my Maxis bills. I am a low usage user and was thus shocked that I was also scammed without my knowledge.

External Content Provider / Pembekal Kandungan Luaran
16/03/07 18:48:49 MacroK SMS 32066]0321643273 3.50
1 item 3.50
SubTotal 8.65

I shall be emailing Maxis for a refund and an apology. Thanks.

JEFF OOI says: Please email me a screen capture of the SMS Scam records.

Hi Jeff,

I now have very good reasons to terminate my 012 line which I have been intending to do for some time.

Thanks for the expose.

Bye Maxis... Hello Digi ???

MCMC issued a guideline to the CPs and telcos that all premium SMSes, whether solicited or not, should carry a price indication in the beginning of the message.

Thus, if you had received a free SPAM from the CPs and telcos, it would read:-

"RM0.00: xxxxxxx....." or "PERCUMA: xxxxx" or "FREE: xxxxx......."

If it is a charged or premium SMS, it would read somthing like:-

"RM1.00: xxxxxx....." or "RM4:xxxxxxxx", depending on how much the price of the message.

Do go through your list of received SPAM to see if there is anything of that sort.

BTW, do be aware that Maxis & Celcom charge for their customer care number, so keep to the point. Insist on talking to someone soon and try not to let them put you on hold. It is already unfair enough that you have been wrongly billed.

Dear Jeff, I also happens to be a (ex)SMS scams victim. which i have been charged for RM0.60.
16/01/07 07:33:32 iSentric SMS
36663]03-7875 1134
0.60
1 item
0.60

I have also notice that Maxis also charge user ( at lease it happened to me ) for the Easy Access Feature , even I did not use it. Be ware of that !!!

I have send the details to your mail box. Have a look on it .

:)
Jodern Yap

moo_t

I don't know about it. But as for me it hurts just the same whether it is a drug addict mugger who has mugged me or a gangster who has whacked me or any of them names cited by Jeff who has conned me. They are all basically from the same cess pool of crooks who think alike. So they should not in any way be treated in kids gloves or silver thread. And I do believe we do not need any new laws to define their crooked ways. They belong in the same prison cell where the rest of the crooks go to. And being blue eyed boys with clean backsides they would deserve every thing the other crooks do to all these clean backsides don't you think?

Love to see some Datuks and Tan Sris go in assuming they are also in this racket for that is all that this is, a racket devised by crooks and vagabonds!

I have complained to MCMC with supporting documents on the unsolicited sms charges but to no avail. I suggest that we the consumers should act in a concerted effort to institute a class action suit against the perpetrators of these scams. Funds can be collected from the suffering public to finance the legal actions. Perhaps Jeff can help to get the initiative going and I am sure there will be many willing supporters. I am still keeping the bills with the unsolicited sms charges, just in case. In my case the culprit is acting in cahoot with DIGI.

I've had a terrible personal experience (prior to the registration of pre-paid numbers), I was being harassed by a +60176637158 and complained many times to Maxis but they claimed that nothing can be done unless I lodge a police report.

Even when I did, I firstly had to tell my tale to an officer and he made me duplicate it in writing - IN MALAY!

After the report, I had to call Maxis and was told to drive over to their service centre to lodge a formal complain.

Sigh, well, the stalker had his way. He hasn't called since the prepaid registration came into place, but I felt like a total victim - there is also no process for this crime.

And yes, I too have be wrongly billed and guess what, Maxis makes no apology but instead blames it on the CP and gives me the CPs name and number to call to lodge a formal complain. I never get any bill reversal - ever! I've complained several times too.

Hi Jeff

Here is my case for this:

On the 10/04/07 at 04:55:02 Astro SMS 32999 RM2.50 was charged in my bill.

Why am I paying for this rubbish?As I know that I haved never register anything from ASTRO. They are annoying.
My number is (012)xxxx450. I'm sure there a lot of them out there being scam by all this nonsense.I'm not the only one. Please respond to my reply thank you.