The end is coming to the scams with charges from five-digit numbers!

Victim of charges from five-digit numbers a few have fallen on their cell phones and have been forced to put their hand deep in their pocket.

ΟThe specific companies with the five-digit frauds act uncontrollably, but it seems that the time has come for a! block!

Η National Telecommunications and Post Commission has a stricter framework for the operation of the companies that manage the well-known five-digit multimedia service providers after the rain of complaints from mobile subscribers for service charges for the provision of which they did not consent.

One of the changes that is being considered after a proposal by the Consumer Ombudsman is the pre-blocking of the five-digit numbers, at least in the properties that are declared for use by minors. In any case, what will be required in a stricter way is the sending of a text message in which the consent of the user will be clearly requested, while there will be clear information about the intended charge.

The first changes will come with the updating of the code of conduct for the so-called multimedia information services which is expected within the next month, while a radical amendment of the regulation is expected next spring.

Year after year there is an explosive increase in complaints about charged messages from such five-digit numbers. References to the Consumer Ombudsman have increased by only 80% in recent years, while similar complaints often reach the National Telecommunications and Post Commission even in the ministry Digital Governance.

The current regulation is relaxed and outdated

Market sources estimate that not only is the current regulation relatively loose and outdated, but it is also poorly implemented as it almost never implements the planned revocation of licenses of such companies despite the complaints of some of them.

Based on the latest data from the total of 12.000 reports that reached Consumer Advocate in 2019, 567 related to unjustified charges from multimedia information services (the well-known five digits).

And if the number of complaints seems relatively small in relation to the total, the trend it shows is that of a rapid increase, given that the corresponding complaints just a year ago were 314 while in 2015 only 46. Only in a month last December that traditionally subscribers send and receive a larger number of messages, the increase in the total percentage of complaints of the year increased by 10 percentage points (from 70% by November 2019 and over 80% at the end of the year).

Follow the tactic "few of many"

The problem with the uncontrollable charges, most of which are not obviously high, as it seems that a few of the many follow the golden rule, has taken on explosive proportions. This is despite the fact that only a small percentage of complaints reach the Independent Authorities compared to the number of subscribers who have experienced similar incidents.

Some telecommunications providers have already included the ability to block five-digit numbers in their applications. However, it seems that this is not enough, on the one hand because not all subscribers have downloaded the app and on the other hand because not everyone has the same level of familiarity with its operation.

The Consumer Ombudsman has already proposed and in a letter to EETT the addition in a prominent place of the first page of the special reference contract that he is a minor user. In this case, the Ombudsman considers that there should be a special field of choice for the general and ex ante exclusion of multimedia information services.

At the same time, he suggests informing the guardian about a possible exceedance of the consumption limit.

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