5pm today, MCMC ushers in the Year of Rats... ( 1 )
Chinese community who looks into the lunar almanac will phase into the Year of Rat in three days' time.
Industry regulator MCMC, which failed to resolve the SMS Scam throughout 2006 through 2007, will also get a rebranding, ahead of the Year of Rat, at 5pm today, in the SKMM Boardroom on Level 2.
According to the script prepared by Amarjit Singh a/l Kartha Singh, Dr Halim Shafie will chair a meeting where repeat offenders will be made guests of honour.
The guest list, a copy of which was obtained by Screenshots, include a Celco, and some of some of its SMS content providers found guilty of industry guidelines, and yet compound remained unpaid 6 months after orders were issued!
Suruhan Kommunikasi dan Multimedia Malaysia (SKMM) will be renamed Suruhanjaya Kebakaan Mickey Mouse.
MCMC will be the brandname for Mickey-mouse Club Mickey-mouse Club, or MC-squared.
And in the Year of Rat, the rats will party.
Names on Amarjit's guest list are as follows, but we do not know who will show up in Mickey Mouse attire among them:
1 ) Yap Chong Pin (Maxis Mobile Services Sdn Bhd)
2 ) Chelvakumar a/l G. Krishnan (Celcom Malaysia)
3 ) Roslan Rosli (DiGi Telecommunications)
4 ) Azizi Mohamed Jennis (DiGi Telecomunications)
5 ) Azmi Daud (Celcom Malaysia)
6 ) Abigail Wong (Maxis Communications)
7 ) Romuald Marappan (Malaysian Content Providers Association)
8 ) CEO of NextNation Network
9 ) CEO of Dubaitech Marketing
10 ) CEO of macro Kiosk
The Deputy Secretary-General (TKSU) of the Energy, Water and Communications Minister will be the chaperon.
Menu for the Rats Party
Here's the menu when party starts at 5pm today:
1 ) Issues on Mobile Content Services
2 ) Implementation of preventive system
3 ) Revenue sharing between network operators and content providers
4 ) Mobile Number Portability (MNP)
5 ) Universal Service Provision (USP) that content providers must contribute
Gong Xi Fa Cai from the rats
As Chinese New Year (CNY) was on the threshold, SMS Scam 2008 was kick-started, using Maxis 2xxxx-series shortcode. Different from previous version of SMS Scam where the 3xxxx-series shortcodes were used, the 2xxxx series are reserved for the celco's in-house product.
In this case, the MaxGames Ang Pow SMS Contest was offered on shortcode 22266, a number owned by Maxis.
Originally, this page was prominently displayed on the MaxGames site under Maxis, operated by Malaysian Mobile Services Sdn. Bhd.
Screenshots started to track it from January 17, 2008, when this blogger was alerted by the readers. I decided to put out a long bait.
However, just as NCCC started to expose the violation of consumer rights over the games, Maxis took down the link displayed on the page, almost immediately. But evidence of misleading advertisement -- which flout industry Guidelines for SMS Content, still remains in the MaxGames server
[ Screenshots withholds the URL for obvious purpose. Google and you will get it. ]
SOURCE: Weekend Mail, January 26-27, 2008
As you can see, the CNY Games advertised on MaxGames site did not even mention it as a Subscription-based product, whereby any gullible consumer who sends 'ON CNY' will be billed RM0.50 PER DAY even if he/she refused to answer any question that was sent by Maxis
Imagine... A one-month campaign, i.e. RM15 per month per mobile per month...!
MORE... Did Maxis collaborate on this CNY Games with Ozura, which claimed in press releases that it was the provider of the platform for MaxGames? Was there cheating of mobile users via the short-code, 22266? And did the Mickey-mouse Mickey-mouse (MC-squared) look the other way... as Minister Lim Keng Yaik will be retiring in a matter of weeks?
Read on!
How the 22266 SMS Scam works
1 ) You receive a promotion broadcast from Maxis
2 ) If you are gullible enough to believe it, and send "ON CNY" to 22266... You will be scammed RM0.50 straight off, no prior warning, no notices.
3 ) Then, when you are sound asleep, this will wake you up...
Let's give you some ideas what you have got yourself into... A scam on you!
Then, there's this ray of hope... that you still have a chance
4 ) It does not matter if you remain silent or give NO answer. You do not need to request.
Why? As you are already automatically subscribed to the "service", Maxis will continue to rip you of RM0.50 every day.
Then the NEXT day….
Remember the maxim "SILENCE means CONSENT"? You ought to be scammed!
5 ) Then, this will wake you up... around midnight every night!
After the exposé...
What did the Suruhanjaya Kebakaan Mickey Mouse (SKMM) do?
On January 31, it declared that Maxis Communications Bhd has discontinued its CNY promotional SMS as of Jan 21.
The MC-squared also said the company would refund the money collected to all 21,222 contest participants by February 29 -- after the Chinese New Year!
The MC-squared promised that it would be investigating if there had been any violation of licence conditions under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998(CMA) or the General Consumer Code for not sufficiently providing pricing information in the promotional material.
The Mickey-mouse said it was constantly monitoring services provided by licensees and would not hesitate to take enforcement action for any breach of licence conditions.
But critical questions remain unanswered...
In the exposé, the customer's complaints were not reported to Maxis, but was escalated by NCCC. Hence the celco can't do cover-up. Questions.
1 ) How did Maxis come up with the figure of 21,222 scam victims?
2 ) Had Mickey-mouse-squared suspended the 22266 shortcode?
3 ) How was Ozura, Maxis' out-sourced operator for the MaxGames, been dealt with pertinent to the scam?
4 ) How soon will MC-squared release its investigation in full transparency -- Amarjit's new mantra?
5 ) Will Maxis be subject to compounds by the DPP?
Yap Chong Ping, Maxis General Manager for Regulatory Department, was invited to the Rats Party at 5pm today. You have to watch his attire to catch a clue.
Comments
And not to miss the MC2 awards
Is it intentional? ;)
Posted by: moo_t![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.my/nav-commenters.gif)
|
February 4, 2008 01:35 PM
why is it that those conned must make a call to Maxis hotline for a full refund? Shldnt Maxis be doing it automatically since they hv all the records? As far as I know calls made to the hotline are not free. Someone pls correct me on this.
I too will be filing a case against Maxis soon if they cant resolve another sms CONtest within a time frame I hv gvn them.
Posted by: groo![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.my/nav-commenters.gif)
|
February 5, 2008 06:42 AM
Good info about scamming. But overall, little knowledge gained. Lousy, very lousy. U wanna know why? People nowadays already knew what is scamming all about. Traditional scamming has begun since year 1849. Once network has been a big impact to the world, it leads to network scamming which effects all the telcos companies. People know that already maa. So y need to explain it again? The best way to explain it is by giving awareness to end users. Come n jeff, i know you are an IT guy, u never learned about end users awareness? All of these issues are based of trust. Its simple, if a user got scammed, padan muka dia la. because the initial part is that of trust. We will do or react something after we gave trust to 'them' ('them' refers to the company or person that scam end users). So if no trust, no scam. If trust then padan muka la kena scam. You should be thankful to the government because they want to give a refund.
Posted by: omronz![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.my/nav-commenters.gif)
|
February 5, 2008 09:58 AM
You can’t trust the telecos (mobile & fixed line operators) in anything nowadays. They are all out to squeeze the last drops from you. Once your itchy hand subscribe you had it And in Telecom Malaysia, you are automatically subscribed and they would hide the choice to “Opt Out” for VoiceMail and even the CLIP service (which is RM 3 per month). If your phone does not have this feature, why would you give TM RM3 monthly? The worst CSR is TM would NOT show this as a separate charge and include it as monthly fee. The basic fee is RM26 and if your bill shows RM29, RM3 is included. Millions are scammed in this CLIP, OPT OUT again, Dial 100, if you are NOT using this feature. And their website http://www.tm.com.my is a bloody farce. They tell you “get more info” but nothing is there on any of the options. And they proudly tell you they have the best CSR.
And in the year of the Rat, PLUS & TM fixed line operator have joined the Rat Race. PLUS Expressway is desperate to get some 30 sen Ang Pows from the Daily 1.3 Million users of the NE Expressway on 6,7,9,10 & 11th Feb 08 with its PLUS Mobil Alert. When stuck in a jam, give them a 30 sen Ang Pow and in return they might tell you there is an “accident at 250KM”. Not exactly a scam, but what use is the information?. ”Where is their CSR on a festive occasion? Instead of alleviating your sufferings on a tolled highway they are “making hay while the sun shines” with some teleco provider.
And the year 2008, will see the TM coffers filled fuller to the brim. They had a FREE voice mail service running since 16 Sep 06 whereby after 10 rings, your calls are diverted to the voicemail. Many enjoyed the service. And also without much CSR, they stealthily withdraw it without any proper notification and OPTION to OPT out and started charging the retrieval from the voicemail box at a rate of 4 sen per minute. Not only are you scammed with a higher bill to retrieve those messages, your callers would also incur ADDITIONAL charges if they start redialing again the SAME number.
So for your peace of mind and for ALL callers, OPT OUT from this expensive service; dial 100. More details at
http://powerpresent.blogspot.com/2008/02/tm-plus-cashing-in-rat-year-2008-sms.html
And Cheers for the year of the Rat for all celebrating it
Posted by: mwt![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jeffooi.my/nav-commenters.gif)
|
February 6, 2008 10:53 AM