MCMC steps up Fight Against SMS scams
14 June 2007 (The Star)
By JO TIMBUONG

CYBERJAYA: The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will be improving steps to curb the prevailing SMS-spoofing scams but concedes it will be hard to completely eliminate the problem.

In SMS-spoofing or fake-MO (mobile originating) scams, content providers use an international gateway to send in a request for content such as mobile ringtones, wallpapers, jokes and horoscope readings to make it seem as if the consumer has requested for it.

Normally, when consumers send an MO or request for mobile content, it is a direct transaction between consumer, telco and content provider.

TOUGH STANCE: The MCMC building In Cyberjaya. MCMC is coming up with tougher measures to curb SMS-spoofing scams.
But in a spoofing environment, fake "requests" from consumers are generated and sent over the Internet to an international SMS gateway before it is transferred to a local gateway and telco.

This request is then regarded as legitimate and consumers are charged without their knowledge.

According to Azizan Mohd Afandi, deputy director of consumer protection at MCMC, guidelines have been drafted to address this problem but they will need to be tightened further.

"We are currently discussing with content providers, telcos and consumer forums on how to improve the guidelines," he said.

He said this at a press conference announcing the upcoming MCMC Handphone Users Survey which was kicked off last Saturday.

Though there has been pressure from the public and some content providers to have MCMC look into the matter, MCMC said the task is far from simple. "It's very hard to pinpoint the perpetrator because anyone can go to a neighbouring country and do it," Azizan said adding that the problem is very technical.

He said that victims of spoofing cases that have contacted the MCMC to complain about the problem will have their losses refunded, if their cases are proven to be true.

Steps taken

At the same time, Azizan said the telcos are doing their part to monitor the spoofing problem.

"The telcos will know they have a problem if they suddenly see up to 20 SMSes sent in a minute," Azizan said.

He added that the MCMC is finalising the anti-spoofing measures but did not reveal details as perpetrators may learn how to get around the system.

"Perpetrators will always find a way to get around it  so the system needs to be constantly improved," he said.

Azizan said the MCMC will also be working with the police to solve this problem. "We will need to, because this scam is a criminal act," Azizan said.

Handphone survey Consumers can also help combat the problem by taking part in a handphone user survey conducted by the MCMC.

The survey will be conducted until July 25.

One of the aims of the survey is to detect how many unsolicited SMS per week a consumer receives.

"Unsolicited SMS is the MCMC's concern, and we want to know how much of it is going on as well as reveal to the people the real numbers," Adelina Iskandar, MCMC director of corporate and community infocomm said.

She added that numbers from the survey can be used as evidence to prove the need to tighten laws and policies pertaining to SMS-spoofing.