SMS gaming firm fined $10,000 for overcharging
TMG Singapore has been fined $1,000 for charging phone users for services they did not subscribe to. TMG ascribes the problem to staff error in computing the keyword for a new service, but IDA says it is TMG's responsibility to have all the necessary safeguards in place.
By Irene Tham
The Straits Times
Friday, Jun 07, 2013
SINGAPORE - A company that sells mobile phone users games and other paid downloads via SMS has been fined $10,000 for charging them for services they had not bought.
It is the second time in two years that TMG Singapore is being punished for flouting government rules governing premium-rate services sold via chargeable SMSes.
The latest offence is for an online trivia game called Skill2Thrill and TMG makes money by charging subscribers $4 per trivia SMS sent. At most, a subscriber will receive and be charged for three SMS messages a week, as stated in the game.
But early this year, a customer complained to regulator Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) that he had received nine more SMS messages on one occasion and was charged a total of $36.
IDA checks found that 349 other phone users had also been wrongfully charged for the additional messages. TMG blamed it on "staff error", saying an employee had configured a new keyword for a new service incorrectly. IDA was not convinced.
"The fact that the error had occurred and was discovered by TMG only after IDA had started investigation into the complaint, even though the complainant had first raised the matter to TMG for investigation, showed that the checks by TMG were not adequate," it said on its website.
Also, it is TMG's responsibility to have all the necessary safeguards in place, the IDA added.
The firm has since offered, via an SMS broadcast, to refund all the 350 customers the wrongful charges. But only one had contacted TMG for it.
In its first offence in October 2011, the company was fined $5,000 for designating a common word "yes" as its subscription keyword and for failing to send monthly reminders to customers on what they had signed up for.
The Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) said complaints against unsolicited premium-rate text messages have been rising. It has received 37 complaints so far this year, compared with 65 last year and 35 the year before.
Some 255 premium-rate service providers are registered in Singapore, and since February last year, telcos must offer users the option to bar them. "But many consumers are still unaware of it," said Case executive director Seah Seng Choon.
From Jan 2 next year, a national Do-Not-Call registry lets people opt out of such unsolicited text messages as well as phone calls.
