Recently, many users have reported on the Internet that they have accidentally found that they have several shared communication calling cards under their names that have not been processed. In addition, some users learned that there are still calling cards for sharing communications under their names after checking the cards according to the process. There are also user feedback that they even encounter the problem that the phone card still has a balance but is stopped for no reason.
In November 2021, the Cyber Security Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments jointly interviewed the relevant responsible persons for sharing communications and reported their problems in the prevention and control of telecommunications network fraud, including the continued high number of telephone numbers and user reports involved in the case, the implementation of the telephone real-name system was not strict, and the illegal development of industry cards.
Accordingly, the regulatory authorities require the sharing of communications to implement listing supervision, take practical and effective measures, and rectify its existing problems within a time limit.
In this way, the company's rectification is not in place. In response to the above problems, the Blue Whale TMT reporter contacted the relevant people in the sharing communication to further verify and learn more about the situation, but as of press time, no reply has been received from the other party.
Inexplicably extra calling cards
On the black cat complaint, some users said that the only shared communication calling card had been cancelled in early 2021, and the number was displayed as an empty number. However, when I inquired about the telephone card registered under his name later, he found that there was even a shared communication card.
According to the official website of the sharing communication, if the user wants to cancel the number, he needs to take a photo of the original front and back of the owner's resident ID card, and the owner's own photo without a crown and send it to the designated mailbox.
According to the screenshot provided by the user, in February 2021, he sent the required ID photo to the designated mailbox of the sharing communication through the mailbox, and then supplemented the relevant video according to the requirements, etc., and provided all the materials required for the deregistration as required.
Sharing communication customer service said that the sharing communication mobile phone card will automatically cancel the number three or six months after the deactivation. However, when the user inquired again, he found that he even had a shared communication card in his name. In other words, the user passively opened a sharing communication mobile phone card without his knowledge.
It is worth mentioning that this situation is not uncommon. On September 14, 2021, after the launch of the national mobile phone card "one card and general inspection" service, many users began to break the news on social platforms and complaint platforms that they found that they had shared communication phone cards under their names that they had not handled. To this day, related complaints still appear from time to time.
"If the sharing of communications is illegally obtained and used illegally, it is at least an act of illegality and infringement, and if the circumstances are serious, it may constitute a crime." Zhao Hu, a partner at Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, told Blue Whale TMT reporters.
With the implementation of the Personal Information Protection Law from November 1, 2021, users' awareness of personal information protection has increased, coupled with the heavy crackdown on telecommunications network fraud by multiple departments, sharing communications needs to take necessary measures to operate in accordance with the law and protect the rights and interests of consumers.
The calling card and the balance were stopped for no reason
Many people also reported that in the case of normal use of the shared communication calling card, there was still a balance in the card but it was stopped for no reason.
Some users consulted customer service about the reason for the unexplained downtime, and the customer service replied that this was the downtime caused by the risk of system detection, but the specific reason could not be queried.
In response to issues such as downtime management mechanisms, the reporter asked about sharing communications, but did not get a reply as of press time.
In fact, the downtime controversy over shared communications has a long history. In recent years, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued a telecommunications service quality notice showing that users have a high level of complaints about virtual business downtime and mobile phone traffic costs, and in most cases, shared communications are on the list.
In the third quarter of 2021, the list of value-added telecommunications companies and mobile resale companies mainly involved in user complaints also included shared communications, mainly for user downtime disputes.
The reporter inquired about the official website of the sharing communication and found that the company currently has three main categories of calling cards, namely star entertainment cards, enjoy · NI Video Card, Shane Green Card.
Among them, the Star Entertainment Card mainly includes member rights and interests such as Mango TV, Tencent Video, and Leakage Reminder, with a monthly package fee of 79 yuan; the traffic in the package is 40G, there is no low consumption requirement, but it is necessary to deposit 100 yuan of phone bills when opening an account.
Enjoy· NI video card has two packages, namely 69 yuan, 119 yuan package, no pre-deposited phone bill, but there is a minimum consumption limit, the monthly low consumption amount is 29 yuan, and the low consumption cycle is 12 months.
The Shang Green Card is a calling card launched in 2019 for students under the age of 18, which sets up entertainment mode and study/rest mode respectively, the package fee is 39 yuan / month, the monthly low consumption amount is 10 yuan, and the low consumption cycle is 12 months.
It can be seen that the above-mentioned mobile phone cards have restrictions such as pre-deposited phone bills or minimum consumption. And this frequent unexplained downtime, how to protect the rights and interests of users who pay for pre-deposited phone bills and low consumption?
Sharing communication compliance is a long road
Founded in 2006, Sharing Communications obtained the national virtual operator license in December 2013, with a total of five mobile phone number segments of 162/165/167/170/171.
At that time, the concept of virtual operators was on fire, and slogans such as "subverting the three major operators" were hyped up. The low price has also become a tool for the virtual merchants to obtain customers.
In order to obtain users, Sharing Communications has adopted a variety of means to subsidize users, including three months of free use, free phone bill traffic, etc. Jiang Zhixiang, chairman of the board of directors of sharing communications, also said that the company has been in a state of debt operation since getting the virtual operator business license, although the number of shared communication users exceeded 10 million, but the average user needs to subsidize 300 yuan. That is to say, the subsidy alone is as high as 3 billion yuan. According to it, the company has 40 million users by the end of 2020.
However, at the same time, harassing calls and spam SMS floods caused by over-reliance on code number resources and irregular development have occurred frequently, and virtual operators have begun to become synonymous with fraud. Sharing communication has been named by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology many times because of the lack of implementation of user real-name system requirements and the flood of spam information.
In November 2019, in response to the serious disturbance of spam information of some mobile resale enterprises, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology collectively interviewed 18 mobile resale enterprises such as sharing communications. Only two months later, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology interviewed three companies, including Sharing Communications, in response to the prominent problems of some mobile communication resale enterprises suspected of fraudulent calls and fraudulent SMS reports.
Subsequently, in December 2020, the Information and Communications Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a "Notice of Order for Rectification" to three mobile resale enterprises such as Sharing Communications in response to the problem of spam information harassment. The notice pointed out that there are obvious management loopholes in the sharing communication in the network access review, user and channel management, problem clue verification and disposal, etc., and the serious disturbance of spam information such as harassing phone calls has been reported in writing this year, but the complaints of spam information users in the third quarter have become more and more serious, and the masses have reacted strongly.
Subsequently, the sharing communication responded that the relevant numbers with frequent harassing calls have been shut down, and the agents who violate the relevant management system of the sharing communication group are held accountable in accordance with the regulations, and take relevant measures to solve the problem of harassing the people. At the same time, the company strengthened the network access mechanism for new users, and further implemented the real-name system registration of mobile phone users in strict accordance with the requirements of the latest real-name system of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
However, in November 2021, The Shared Communication was once again jointly interviewed by the Cyber Security Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, and was required to rectify within a time limit because of its persistently high number of telephone numbers and user reports, the implementation of the real-name telephone system for telephones, and the illegal development of industry cards.
In this regard, in the past two years, the sharing communication has fallen into the strange circle of "being interviewed - rectifying - rectifying not in place - being interviewed again". How long will it take to comply with the law? How long can the fire of the virtual quotient burn? Blue Whale TMT will continue to be watched.