VietNamNet Bridge - The Bach Khoa Anti-virus Center (BKAV) and mobile network operators disagree on the number of spam messages sent every day.


A report of BKAV, the most prestigious Vietnamese network security group, showed that 13.9 million spam messages were sent daily in the last six months of 2015, an increase of 0.4 million messages compared with the same period of the year before.

The number of spam messages increased sharply on holidays, when phone use demand was higher.

Meanwhile, mobile network operators could only block 3.3 million spam messages, a modest figure.

The report pointed out that spam messages came from three major sources – ‘rubbish simcards’, free messages on OTT (over the top) and digital content services.

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BKAV said that 13.9 million spam messages were sent daily in the last six months of 2015, an increase of 0.4 million messages compared with the same period of the year before.

Rubbish simcards’ are simcards which subscribers use for the short term. They are thrown away when the account gets empty.

The number of spam messages has been increasing despite great efforts to stop them. 

Senders still try to spread spam messages because of the low costs and the expected high benefits. 

Meanwhile, mobile network operators are believed to have loose control over pre-paid subscribers’ registration.

Network operators have been repeatedly criticized for the increasingly high number of spam messages. Some analysts believe that they deliberately loosened control in order to seek higher revenues.

Meanwhile, Viettel has voiced its disagreement with the report. 

“BKAV said there are 14 million spam messages every day and network operators can block 3-4 million. But in fact, in February 2016 alone, Viettel deleted 12 million alleged spam messages,” said Do Minh Phuong, deputy CEO of Viettel.

With the current telecom fee, when blocking 12 million messages a day, Viettel is turning down revenue of tens of billions of dong a month. This is the price it has to pay to protect customers.

“We interviewed customers regularly about spam messages, about 100-200 customers once every several days. And we received they are satisfied about our action of blocking spam messages,” Phuong said.

“We have been making great efforts to do this,” he said.

Bui Hoang Phuong, deputy head of the Information Security Agency, an arm of the Ministry of Information and Communication, said the agency will have a working session with BKAV to clarify the method BKAV used to measure the number of spam messages.

He noted that while BKAV’s report showed the problem is getting worse, the reports from telcos show the situation is better and that a high number of spam messages have been blocked.

The agency reported that network operators blocked messages from 120,000 subscribers last Tet holiday alone, or four times higher than in the 2015 Tet.

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