Dealers ringing up commissions via false registrations

Dealers who proceed to register numbers without the applicants being present would be violating MCMC guidelines.

Rafidah Mat Isa

PETALING JAYA: The practice of exploiting personal information has been a common occurrence in the telecommunications industry for a long time, a former industry insider said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said dealers stand to get about RM200 in commissions for each number they register.

“As long as the account is active for three months, they can get the commission.

“They can forge signatures and use photocopies of MyKad to register the numbers,” the source claimed.

The source, who was in the industry for 10 years, claimed that dealers “usually don’t care” about following industry guidelines as long as they continue receiving commissions and hit their key performance indicator targets.

The source said that even in clear cases of fraud, victims were still required to present themselves at the service centres with a police report and statutory declaration to confirm that they had not authorised the registration of the numbers.

“It’s a long procedure. Some service providers take months to retrieve all the (victims’) documents.

“It could take more than a year to clear the victims’ accounts, because there are many fraud cases,” the source claimed.

The Communications and Multimedia Consumer Forum of Malaysia (CFM) told The Star that it received 169 complaints between January last year and May this year regarding false registration of sim cards.

The forum was designated by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to protect the rights of consumers in that sector.

MCMC monitoring and compliance head Rafidah Mat Isa said telcos should inspect the dealerships responsible for registering the numbers without consent, so they could determine whether or not a syndicate was involved.

“It’s important for telcos to find out if syndicates were involved, because telcos have to bear the cost of unpaid bills.

“It’s a loss for them,” Rafidah said.

She added that under MCMC guidelines, it is mandatory for applicants to be physically present when registering their numbers.

Under the guidelines, dealers cannot keep photocopies of the applicants’ identity cards to prevent any possible abuse of their personal information.

“Applicants need to be physically present so dealers can see and verify their identification documents in person.

“Dealers who proceed to register numbers without the applicants being present would be violating MCMC guidelines,” Rafidah said.

Those found guilty of violating the guidelines are liable to a fine not exceeding RM100,000 or a maximum jail term of two years, or both.

Since 2009, MCMC has issued about RM6.16mil in compounds to errant dealers under Section 127 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.