Mobile network operators and relevant agencies must enact measures to prevent SMS spam and scam messages from annoying subscribers as this ‘rubbish’ is ruining social order and threatening national security, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Information and Communications ruled Tuesday.
The mobile network operators should develop technical systems that can block spam messages based on the number of texts sent, the senders, and the message content, the department said at a meeting with mobile service providers.
The firms must also develop and regularly update a database of key words usually seen in unwanted text messages so that the anti-spam systems can work more effectively, the department added.
The mobile network operators were also tasked with a number of duties, including detecting subscribers that bombard SMS spam and invalidating their accounts, as well as overseeing the content of mobile-based services.
“Mobile service providers should terminate contracts with any partners that are found spreading spam or scam text messages, or providing inappropriate and illegal content,” the department requested.
Mobile network operators should regularly inform their subscribers of the spam messages, and warn them of any dangerous scams spread via text messages.
Text messages intended to dupe recipients into gambling or scams and those with sexual and suspicious content spread like wildfire among subscribers based in Ho Chi Minh City, Le Quoc Cuong, deputy head of the municipal Department of Information and Communications, said at the meeting.
The SMS spam is “causing damage to social order and national security,” Cuong added.
Bui Viet Duong, head of the department’s post and telecommunication unit, said there are businesses that have been found using more than 5,000 different SIM cards to send out spam texts.
Vietnam’s three largest mobile network operators, Viettel, MobiFone, and Vinaphone, are also taking action to fight against the spammers.
Military-run Viettel said it is building a technical system to block SMS spam, whereas MobiFone admitted it is currently capable of only blocking spam messages based on senders.
MobiFone is expected to be able to filter text messages to tell which are spam by the second quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, Vinaphone started an anti-spam procedure on May 20, 2013, and has since blocked nearly 690,000 spam subscribers.
The city’s information department has asked mobile network operators to cut services of 2,971 SIM cards as the subscribers failed to register their personal information as per law, and 184 SIM cards for sending spam SMS messages, said Nguyen Duc Tho, head of the department’s inspectorate.
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