That SMS from your friend could be spam CHENNAI: Misusing consumer numbers for marketing by mobile service providers has been irking consumers no end. On Wednesday, two persons lodged a complaint with the Cyber Cell of Chennai Police against a service provider.
On Saturday, C Arul Mani Vasagam of MC Nagar got a text message in the form of a missed call alert from his friend C M Balaji's mobile which didn't make much sense. This was the message: "I was trying to reach you. Please call back. Looking for a house. SMS your query to 566778. Rs 3.' Reading the message 'looking for the house', Arul got tensed. "I thought that my friend was looking for a house, as he was in trouble. When I called him, he said he had not called me at that time and so there was no need for the missed call alert," he said. Arul fumed over this act of the service provider, Airtel , and alleged that Airtel was intentionally tapping the frequently called numbers of a subscriber and using them to attract attention. "They make revenue by SMSing advertisement of real estate companies. But it is illegal to use consumer details without his/her permission," he said. Meanwhile, C M Balaji, in whose name the message was sent, said that he had not made any call to Arul. "If the advertisement comes in the service provider's name, then consumers delete it, but he/ she reads it if it is from a known number. This way even bomb hoaxes can be sent from our numbers," he said. Venkatesh, an official in charge of Airtel's value added services said that this is a "marketing strategy" of the company. "Customers will receive such alerts only if they have activated the missed call alert facility. The complaints will be looked into," he said. Meanwhile, telemarketing calls continue to haunt mobile phone users despite the Supreme Court directing the introduction of a "call registry" in place of a do-not-call (DNC) registry. "Some days back I received a call from a medical insurance company pestering me to take a policy. They said that my oral agreement was enough and they would deduct money every month from by bank account," said T Sadagopan, a consumer activist. He said that the insurance company knew details about his credit card. "When I asked them, they said that they had picked it randomly. It is surprising that these people call even after activating the do not disturb facility," he said. Cyber Cell officer S Charles said that the SMS case was under investigation. "We have spoken to the service provider and we are looking into the issue," he said. On the telemarketing call issue, he said that it was better to give it in writing to the service provider and activate the do not disturb facility. "Giving a loan or an insurance based on oral agreement is wrong. We have not received such complaints so far, but if we receive we can help them out," he said. [EMAIL PROTECTED] regards, prateek agarwal. cell: 09928341197 e-mails: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- you can visit my website for los of stuff related to visually impaired and others please go on to www.prateekagarwal.webs.com Join Access India convention: For updates on it visit: http://accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm Registration closes on September 12th!! To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
