Ban SMS Contest

A BERNAMA report carried in The Star Online: call to ban SMS contests.

KUALA LUMPUR: Relevant authorities have been urged to study the possibility of banning SMS contests as they allegedly contain elements of cheating.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk T. Murugiah said he felt that SMS contests should be banned as it was a form of gambling, with the people ending up losers while the organisers raked in huge profits.

“I have received many complaints from many people who had fallen prey to the scams. They lost between a few hundred ringgit and hundreds of thousand ringgit,” he told reporters after meeting SMS contest victims here Tuesday.

The victims filed their complaints with the Public Complaint Bureau headed by Murugiah.

”Winners of SMS contests are short-changed. They are duped into paying more than the value of the prizes that they have won,” he added. -- Bernama

SMS has been the latest platform for businesses to rake in profit. Together with them are the SMS service providers too. We agree that the objective of doing business is to make profit. But make profit not on the expanse of the consumers. Whether we realise it or not, the consumers except one or two, are not on the winning side in anything. It is not a win win situation because only one party profits while the other lose.

The authority should look into the matter and not only contest through SMS but also into reality shows that encourage the public to vote using SMS. Its the SMS service provider and the organiser who laugh all the way to the bank but the voters who can go into hundreds or thousands of RMs are just syok sendiri. Its sheer waste of hard earned money.

There are more ways where service provider make money through SMS such as music and graphic downloads, jokes, horoscope and the list goes on. We can get all those elsewhere for free or at a cheaper rate.

The best thing to do  is we ourselves have to educate our own self. We might say OK la, just 30 cents. But it is not you alone doing it. Thousands are being involved. How sure are we not being conned by these service provider. Most of the time results are not released and are there any winner at all?  

So.........just refrain yourself from falling into the trap of these SMS that lure you into parting with your money.