Investigators who busted a large cellular spamming case, said that mobile network operators should take some responsibility because they profit from the junk messages.
 |
| Le Ngoc Tien |
Ministry of Public Security's Anti-Hi-tech Crimes Police Department (C50) and police from Dong Da District, Hanoi recently broke the case.
A man named Le Ngoc Tien hired individuals to set up three separate companies so he could send out spam ads to mobile phones using the carriers Vinaphone, Mobiphone and Viettel.
Most of the texts are for gambling and fortune-telling services. When the user replies to a text message, VND500 to VND15,000 will be subtracted from their account. From June 2013 to June 2014, millions of spam texts were sent out, bringing in around VND22 billion (USD1million).
After this case, police decided to expand their investigation and discovered a company called Thien Ngan, which had a similar spam scheme.
According to advertisement contracts, the network operators would earn 55% of the total revenue from such schemes. When the investigators asked the operators to take responsibility, they answered that enforcement would be impossible because millions of text messages would have to be sorted through and read before they send them on to users.
Colonel Le Hong Son, Head of Anti-Hi-tech Crimes Police Department, said the Ministry of Information and Communication should place tighter regulations on operators or the consumers would be the ones to suffer.