Complaints from Mobile Customers about Being Subscribed to Third-party Services without Their Consent

Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Communications and Information (a) in the past year, many complaints have been received from mobile customers about being subscribed to third-party services without their consent; (b) under what grounds do such situations arise and what is being done to prevent it; and (c) whether assistance and refunds will be given to elderly consumers who are victims of these situations.

Premium Rate Services (PRS) are value-added services delivered over mobile telecommunication networks, and include third-party services provided to mobile customers.

In 2017, the Infocommunications Media Development Authority (IMDA) received 91 PRS-related complaints. These complainants generally claimed that they were charged for PRS that they did not subscribe to. IMDA's investigations revealed that these end users had actually subscribed to the PRS without reading the terms and conditions carefully.

IMDA has implemented several measures to protect consumers against accidentally subscribing to PRS. Currently, the Code of Practice for the Provision of Premium Rate Service (PRS Code) requires service providers to publish the terms and conditions of their services clearly and confirm end-users' purchases before activating the PRS.

Since 2012, IMDA has required mobile operators to offer a PRS barring service for free. Consumers who activate this service will not receive or be billed for any chargeable PRS. Since the PRS barring service was introduced, the number of PRS-related complaints has dropped by approximately 80% from 483 complaints in 2012 to 91 complaints in 2017.

IMDA has also stepped up our consumer education efforts, including giving talks at events targeting seniors, distributing brochures and uploading educational videos on YouTube.

Where consumers, including seniors, have accidentally subscribed to PRS, IMDA will also step in to engage the service provider. In several cases, the service provider has waived the subscription charges incurred on a goodwill basis, and the mobile operator has thereafter activated its PRS barring service. Nevertheless, we urge consumers to also ensure that they fully understand the terms and conditions before activating any PRS.