Value Added Service (VAS) providers are becoming the country’s scam as these providers are indulging in taking away huge amount of money from the cell phone users by defrauding customers in the name of various offers like news alert and welcome tune.

This has been found in an investigation carried out by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

This whole scam is based on the trick that a typical consumer does not keep checking his or her mobile phone balance.

Without permission of the mobile users, some so called VAS organisations automatically launched various services on their mobile phones, where a certain amount of subscription is charged on daily, weekly, or monthly basis.  

After getting the licenses from the regulatory body BTRC, these VAS providers are affiliated with the mobile operators. Part of the money received from these services goes to mobile operators, government and VAS companies. The BTRC has investigated the activities of only two of the hundreds of VAS companies connected to the mobile network for six months.  

BTRC investigation found horrific picture of cheating customers. An organization has launched various mobile services for more than 3.5 lakh customers in August. BTRC's investigation has shown that they did not even get the consent of a customer before launching these services. But a huge amount of money has been looted from these customers without their knowledgein the name of various types of services including News Alert, Welcome Tune, Jokes, Horoscope, and many more.

At the 244 meeting of BTRC, the authority seriously discussed about the issue. During the meeting a majority attendees of the meeting voted to return these money illegally earned by those providers and deposit them in the state treasury. In addition, the part of the illegal earnings received by the mobile operators must be refunded.

The meeting blamed the mobile operators for the misconduct of the VAS providers and said that if the mobile companies wanted, they could not deduct money without the knowledge of the customers. They cannot avoid liability in any way. Rather, they are deliberately indulging in cutting this money. Many have also strongly advocated administrative fines for them.

The investigation conducted by BTRC's system and service department officials found that, two VAS providers named Purple Digit Communication Ltd and the OviKathacitra Ltd did such misconduct. In August, OciKathacitra has earned Tk 43 lakh by launching news alert and another service without users’ consent. From the amount, mobile operators get Tk 26 lakh and OviKathacitra got Tk 17 lakh.

Similarly, Purple Digit earned Tk 30 lakh by launching two VAS services in 76860 users mobile. However, the company has admitted their misconduct to BTRC.

During the commission meeting, it has been recommended to file a case against them. It has also been recommended to stop the VAS service of the concerned mobile phone operators.

It is learned that the connection of these two organizations has already been severed. The issue of legal action against them is also under process.

BTRC chairman JahurulHaque told the media that, "BTRC is always working to stop such anarchy. We will take strict action against these institutions. We are inspecting other organizations, if such allegations are found to be true will not be exempted. We have already instructed the mobile operators to disconnect the two accused companies."