Welcome Guest   |  Login   |   Signup
JG Logo
Sat, May 26, 2012
Archive Search

Phone Fraud Victim Says He Was Ignored By Provider
Zaky Pawas | October 06, 2011

Share This Page
0
0
0
0
Share with google+ :


Post a comment
Please login to post comment

Comments

Be the first to write your opinion!

A Jakarta resident reported his phone service provider to the police on Wednesday over its lack of response to his repeated complaints about an SMS scam that has led to him being robbed of telephone credits and overbilled since March.

Feri Kuntoro, 36, from Matraman in East Jakarta, said it all started with a late-night ad on television that offered a prize to whoever dialed in first.

“The advertisement came on after midnight, around 12:30 a.m. I tried the instructions on TV because there was the prospect of getting a BlackBerry as a gift,” Feri said.

After the incident, Feri said, he lost between Rp 180,000 and Rp 200,000 ($20 to $22) worth of cellphone credits every month.

“I am a passive phone user. I very seldom make calls or send messages,” he said.

Feri said that since calling the number on TV, he has received SMS ads daily and that every time he has gotten one he has lost some phone credits.

When Feri complained to Telkomsel, his provider, they “did nothing, only telling me to unregister,” he said.

But despite doing everything he could to unregister, Feri said he has continued to receive unwanted texts.

“I have unregistered since March but the reply is always ‘sorry, the system is encountering a problem, please try again,’ ” he said.

He also said that although he had never signed up for a personal ringtone, his cellular phone was sent one every week, and he was billed Rp 7,500 for it every week .

Feri said he decided to go to the police after getting no response from Telkomsel. He accused the provider of violating a 2008 law on the protection of consumers.

“I think this has happened not only to me but to others, too. As a citizen, I want this to be better regulated,” Feri said.

Adj. Sr. Comr. Wisnu Hermawan, head of the Jakarta Police’s cybercrimes unit, said officers had already talked to Feri about the complaint and were now considering the next step.

“We cannot yet say what the crime is, whether it is theft or fraud. We will study this further,” Wisnu said, adding that a query had been sent to the operator.

The theft of phone credits that takes place via content providers, though, can usually be categorized as fraud, Wisnu said.

Mobile phone service providers that charge customers for unsolicited services could face sanctions, said Tifatul Sembiring, the communications and information technology minister.

“If the content provider and the operator are proven to be guilty, we’re going to sanction them,” Tifatul said.

Feri’s complaint was the second one lodged against Telkomsel recently.

Lawyer David Tobing filed a lawsuit at the South Jakarta District Court accusing the company of allowing a content provider to steal a total of Rp 100,000 worth of phone credits from him through text messages he said he had never solicited.