Free ringtone … my @$$

I‘m sure most cellphone users have received, at one time or another, one of those text messages offering ringtones and/or wallpapers for Php2.50 to Php10. These messages are really annoying if your cellphone and/or simcard has a very limited amount of storage memory, as you’ll be obliged to keep on deleting messages quite often.

But there is a sinister side to this little annoyance. Several years back, a friend of mine told me he suspected that telecom companies automatically charge their cellphone subscribers for unsolicited text messages regarding cellphone content, such as ringtones, wallpapers, games and the like. Back then I wasn’t 100% in agreement with the guy, as I knew him to be somewhat paranoid (the man lists down every single text message he sends, no joke).

It turns out; he was right. Just recently, I read in an online news article (http://business.inquirer.net/money/columns/view/20071030-97613/Cell_phone_racket) that there is in fact a company engaged in the selling of cellphone content to the subscribers of a leading telecom company, which automatically charges the telecom company’s prepaid cellphone subscribers for unsolicited cellphone content.

What this cellphone content company does is send prepaid cellphone subscribers “free” ringtones and automatically bills them for the “free” ringtone. The unsuspecting subscriber either deletes the ringtone or saves it to his cellphone’s memory all the while assuming that he got it for free. There was no contract perfected in that instance, as there was no meeting of the minds, there was no consent on the part of the subscriber-buyer, he was not even aware that such a purchase took place.

“Theft”, plain and simple, comes to mind. There was taking, of the property of another (the amount deducted by the cellphone content company from the subscriber’s cellphone load), without the subscriber- owner’s consent (the subscriber never even had knowledge that his cellphone load was being deducted a certain amount due to the transaction) and there was no attendant circumstance, like violence.

Administrative sanctions by the National Telecommunications Commission won't be sufficient to penalize this kind of "racket". Considering that this “racket” is perpetuated against millions of unsuspecting Filipino citizens, most of whom are poor; involving millions, if not billions, of pesos; and is detrimental to the credibility of an essential industry for progress, the telecom industry; our legislators should think of crafting harsher laws against this kind of "large-scale" machination , preferably something involving the use of the death penalty.

SOURCE: http://business.inquirer.net/money/columns/view/20071030-97613/Cell_phone_racket