VietNamNet Bridge – Despite a series of drastic measures taken to stop spam SMS, local authorities remain powerless in settling the problem.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan at the Ministry of Information and Communication’s conference held in January 2012, emphasized that stopping spam messages is one of the most important tasks the ministry needs to focus on in 2012.

However, at the recent conference on reviewing the state management works in the first six months of 2012, officials admitted that “rubbish simcards” still have been selling everywhere, thus igniting the spam message boom again.

In Vietnam, “rubbish simcard” is a slang word used to say about the simcards which would be thrown away after one-time use, because the users do not intend to keep the subscriber numbers.

An official of the Long An provincial Department of Information and Communication said that sending messages from the rubbish simcards to speak ill of each other has become so popular in the locality.

He said the department has been urged to settle the problem, but admitted that the department still finds it difficult to fulfill the task.

“Only one in every 10 cases of using simcards for bad intentions can be discovered,” he said.

Spam messages have become more diversified. Some messages are sent to subscribers, telling them to spend money and send messages back to get gifts or use services. In the past, spam messages were sent from the subscriber numbers with 11 numerals. However, nowadays, such messages have been sent from 10-numeral subscriber numbers put under the control of big mobile network operators, including VinaPhone and MobiFone.

Nguyen Thai Hoang, a mobile phone subscriber in Hai Phong City, complained that he has to spend a lot of time every day to erase spam messages.

“I have got crazy with the spam messages. I have been told to use the blacklist service to prevent spam messages. However, I can register 20 subscriber numbers only. Therefore, the measure proves to be helpless,” he complained.

On May 8, the inspectors of the Ministry of Information and Communication released a decision to take some subscriber number strips (6x61, 7x68, 6x23) back from three enterprises in Hanoi for their behavior of spreading tens of thousands of spam SMS.

No more cases have been found and made public so far, though the spam messages still have been spread out every day.

An official of the Ministry of Information and Communication said the ministry is teaming up with VNCERT (Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team) to inspect the units which spread spam SMS. However, after paying the fine of tens of millions of dong, they would continue delivering spam messages, because the profits they expect prove to be higher than the fines.

A digital content expert said that spam SMS still can exist because it is very easy to install an SMS Spam system, while it is not too costly, just tens of millions dong. Especially, this does not require complicated technologies and know-hows (free SMS sending software, 3G USB selling everywhere). Therefore, everyone can run the systems.

At present, mobile network operators try to control spam SMS technologically by limiting the number of SMS sent within a day, or checking the keyword in the messages sent.

The expert believes that it is still necessary to set a limitation on the number of SMS sent within one minute.

Buu Dien