Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has miserably failed in devising any mechanism to check fake text messages and phone calls from unknown numbers enticing subscribers with attractive prizes, lotteries and plots to deceive people and deprive them of their hard earned money.
The Authority, in its report, admitted receiving 40,502 complaints during the current year against 34,723 complaints received in the same period of last year.
A large number of complaints were about the fake and deceptive calls and text messages to telecom subscribers from unknown numbers.
The regulator received over 40,000 complaints during the year and 99.64 percent were addressed with the cooperation of the respective operators.
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Almost 50 percent complaints against CMOs were of “Misuse of service”, which includes complaints related to fraudulent, unsolicited, spamming and obnoxious communication.
PTA further categorized these complaints and resolved them according to the available legal tools with the cooperation of the respective operators. Individual complaints are of the same nature, however, some remain to be different and require different strategy altogether to resolve.
One such issue was related to charges on international roaming on data services.
As per the data, calls and marketing messages from unwanted numbers has become a nuisance for telecom users depriving them of their right to privacy.
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To address these issues, PTA felt a strong need of raising awareness through print and electronic media, against the “deceptive, fraudulent calls & SMS, unsolicited marketing/ spamming calls & SMS, obnoxious, unwanted calls & SMS”.
The awareness campaign was broadcasted through radio, text messages and newspapers. Customers using mobile phones were informed and alerted through advertisements that they should not transfer any cash (Mobicash, Upaisa, TimePay, Easypaisa etc.) or phone credits in response to such calls and SMS from unknown numbers.
Different modes of communication were used to highlight the issue and how to report such incidences to FIA and PTA.
Mujhy Aj Bhi Saba k Load Mangne Wale Or Income Support Msg Ate hai
RIP PTA
LoL mujy bhi……..
Mobile phone pay tax kam kr dein aor number of sims allowed on one cnic 5 kr dein , 5 data ly saky koi ya 5 voice plus data , reverification dobara honi chahiy , new sim sirf franchise say milni chahiy aor costly kr dein , replacements local devices say ho lekin new sim sirf franchise say mily , ya business centre ya head office say , jo inhon ny devices de hoi hein un say double finger lagwa k lety hein log illegal sim
I am reporting spam SMS messages to PTA 9000 number everyday. it is not a free number but still I am noticing that thry aree not blocking spam senders.
Saba ka rate bhi increase ho gaya hai. Pehle 20 rupees tha ab 100 mangti hai. LoL
PTA walay bhi insan aur Pakistani hain, unn ke saath bhi pait laga hua hai bhai.
Agar wo SIM block karne lag gaye tow Mobile operators se liye huay gifts, international trips or trainings waghaira halal kaise ho gai.
Samajh tow gaye ho ge ap log.
to report such SPAM messages there should be a Short Code or number where the user can *FORWARD* these messages, because the actual culprit number is written inside the message and not the actual sending number. There should be some mechanism at the PTA and/or Operator to read the message and pick the number. And that number should be *BLOCKED*. This way the user just have to forward the message to e.g. 9000 or 9211 or 420