Sher Muhammad Awan – Mobile companies, on the one hand, are providing communication facilities to the people and on the other hand, they are extorting million from the users. The country is currently witnessing a massive digital fraud of which not only the public but also the cyber crime prevention agencies are unaware. In Pakistan, people usually do not check the mobile balance which is taken advantage of by the mobile companies and Millions of rupees are being taken out of the pockets of the people every week. Nowadays since the use of “keypad” mobile is less and mostly users have “touch screen” mobile in which by scrolling or using the internet, an advertisement is clicked and the balance is cut off which the user is not aware of.
Some time an SMS received from the company that such service has been activated. And amount has been deducted from your account. If a complaint is made by calling the helpline, user always come to know the same answer that “it is a third party advertisement which you have activated from your mobile”. However, the user who is literate and has an understanding of technology seems to be complaining about the same issue. Many times it happens that user have turned off the service through code or call center and on that day the service is activated again so user pay double charges for the same service on the same day and important thing is that user neither needs this service nor activate it voluntarily.
All the companies are doing this. Telenor is a well known company in Pakistan which has more than 188 million users. This complaint was heard from various users. Talking to the call center terminates the service or it is told that this will not happen in future but then the same thing happens. Complainants said that since they started checking the balance, they are surprised that the service is activated despite the precaution. When a service is complained about, there is no significant response and it is said that you activated this service yourself. Many users are not even familiar with the name of such service. The common man thinks that he has lost fifty or sixty rupees in a month, but companies collect millions of rupees. Most of which goes to third party. For the sake of a few lac earned through advertisements, millions of rupees of the people are lost in this digital robbery.
The mobile company should send a message for any such service and if the user wants such a service, he should write yes in the reply so that the common man does not suffer loss of money due to automatic service. The government should also keep an eye on such a large digital heist and take steps to save the people from this loss. Unfortunately, concerned institutions do not get active unless the voice is raised on electronic media or social media. Although , it is their job to be active before the loss. People must register a complaint of ongoing fraud across the country and raise voice on social media to highlight it.