What do some people earn from charging mobile phone bills?

There are now more than 700 million mobile phone users in our country. Facing the huge market, more and more solution providers, mobile phone manufacturers and mobile phone value-added service providers have begun to join forces and are changing their tricks to build in mobile phone charging menus. More and more consumers have fallen into their trap.

■Case

◎Yin Liang, Commercial Director of Guangzhou Tianxia Technology Co., Ltd.

We have built some SMS or WAP products into mobile phones, or Just click in a menu and click directly to order this service. Generally, it is 30-70 (share), the solution provider shares 70%, and we share 30%.

Information fees will be deducted when you click on the menu

Mr. Chen from Guangdong uses a Tianshida brand mobile phone. Since he uses this mobile phone, he will generate more than ten yuan every month. Inexplicable information fees. Mr. Chen vaguely felt that this might be related to the mobile phone he was using.

He found that there were many unfamiliar and unknown menus in the mobile phone menu. Mr. Chen clicked on the Beauty Landlord entry. Unexpectedly, the game interface did not appear on the phone, but it showed that text messages were being sent. Immediately afterwards, he received a text message on his mobile phone, which read: Reply with the number and choose to start the game. 2. Start the game immediately, 3. Beauties fight landlords, real-person battle online, 3 yuan each. Seeing that it cost 3 yuan to play this game, Mr. Chen did not reply. However, when he checked the day's phone bill details, he was surprised to find that 3 yuan in information fees had been deducted.

One month’s information fee is 16 yuan

In Mr. Chen’s mobile phone bill details for August 2009, we can see that there are as many as 29 records of information fees being charged. The companies collecting fees involve three companies including Guangzhou Tianxia Technology, Hunan Zhiyuan Information, and Beijing Xingchao Online, totaling 16.69 yuan. Guangzhou Tianxia Technology Company alone charged 11 yuan. Guangzhou Tianxia Technology Company is a supplier of value-added mobile phone services. The charging menus in the Tianshida mobile phone used by Mr. Chen were built into the mobile phone by this company.

The reporter tried to click on the popular CS female gangster assault menu on Mr. Chen’s mobile phone, and soon received a text message like this: The capture operation codenamed Lieyan is being carried out secretly, reply 1260, watch the girl Bandit information, 3 yuan each. In the absence of any reply, the reporter was still deducted an information fee of 3 yuan.

◎Manager Liu UTStarcom Company

(This is) bundled software. You don't like it, but I like it, he likes it, and another person likes it, so any of our mobile phones will not be targeted at a certain person. If it is targeted at a certain person, this phone will not be sold.

The charging menu cannot be deleted

Mr. Jiang from Shanghai also had one yuan of information fee deducted in this way. What made him even more angry was that on June 9, 2009, he ordered nothing and was deducted two yuan in information fees. "Isn't this the same as robbing money?"

Mr. Jiang was using a UTStarcom 637 mobile phone. He found that this phone has many fully functional menus built into it. There are a total of 12 menus on the main interface of the phone, and 6 of them have charging items hidden in them. Mr. Jiang also tried to delete the charging menu, but he couldn't delete it after rummaging through his phone.

So why are there so many paid menus on mobile phones? How are these menus built into mobile phones?

Mobile phone solution providers are responsible for built-in services

China Mobile's "Monternet SP Cooperation Management Measures" promulgated in January 2007 stipulates that SPs and terminal manufacturers are prohibited from directly cooperating with terminal built-in services. . However, there is an important role in most domestic mobile phone production links, and that is mobile phone solution providers. Solution providers are mainly responsible for providing a complete set of mobile phone design solutions, including research and development of mobile phone motherboards and designing operating systems. They sell the motherboards with operating systems to mobile phone manufacturers, and the manufacturers purchase components such as casings and LCD screens to assemble into finished mobile phones.

Reporter test

Charge 37.9 yuan for 35 clicks

How serious are these forced charges? In December 2009, the reporter purchased 10 domestic mobile phones on the market and tested them one by one, and found that all of them had built-in charging menus of various titles. After clicking on the 35 charging menus on the Tianshida 618 mobile phone, there was no response to confirm the operation, but I was charged an information fee of 37.9 yuan, involving more than 10 mobile phone value-added suppliers. Including Hunan Zhiyuan Information, Beijing Sohu Internet, Hainan Zhongtong Computer, Beijing Gaoyangsheng, Beijing Chengxitong, etc. Among them, Hunan Zhiyuan Information deducted a fee of 15 yuan.

Among the 10 mobile phones tested, the one with the most built-in charging menus has 154 items, and the smallest one has 35 items. You will be charged for clicking on the built-in menus on these phones, and most of them do not require a second confirmation. These charging menus are like charging traps. If mobile phone users are not careful, their money will be deducted.

In the customer service management system of Guangzhou Tianxia Technology Co., Ltd., the reporter saw that there are more than 40,000 consumer complaint records, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Charges must be confirmed twice

In 2006, the Ministry of Information Industry issued the "Implementation Rules for the Investigation and Processing of Information Service User Applications." The detailed rules stipulate that after receiving the user's service application, the information service provider must send request confirmation information to the user, and the request for user confirmation information must include the charging standard and charging method. After receiving the user's confirmation feedback, the information service provider can The user provides services and is billed accordingly, and is notified that the service subscription is successful. This confirmation process is referred to as "secondary confirmation". However, mobile phone value-added service providers have their own countermeasures.

Revealing the secret

In order to get a high share of the share, the solution provider is trying their best. The reporter took Mr. Jiang's Tianshida 618 mobile phone and counted it. There were as many as 35 such paid menus. Such as Happy Farm, Monopoly VS Female Secretary, Mature Online, Fresh Beauty, etc. Insiders revealed the mystery. There are many products with tempting names built into the mobile phone, such as Sex Night Talk, which are actually pure charging codes. They are just a deduction text message, which is sent to the backend of the SP provider to deduct fees from the user.

Money will still be deducted even if you don’t click on the menu

In order to deduct more information fees, some mobile phone value-added service providers simply have built-in scheduled sending programs in their mobile phones. Even if you don't click on these charging menus, it will still charge you money.

Staff (Shenzhen Ai Shishi Technology Co., Ltd.):

If you want to make a deduction reminder, you can do it. If you don’t do a deduction (prompt), go inside and the deduction has been realized. It’s a waste. Normally, after the fee is deducted, we will give him a reminder and send him a fee deduction reminder.

There is a big difference in income between sending a "secondary confirmation" and not sending it. The difference between prompting and no prompting is eight, nine or ten times. In fact, it is still less. The difference is dozens of times, which is normal. There is no way, this thing can only be used illegally.

Staff (Shanghai Oufu Technology Co., Ltd.):

There is a timer in the (mobile phone). After one month, it will start, or after It will start in 10 days, or it can be connected to its backend server, and it will remotely connect your machine (mobile phone).

Service providers and manufacturers share 40-60 shares

A company named "Huadong Feitian" appeared many times in Mr. Jiang's phone bill. This Huadong Feitian is a mobile phone value-added service provider belonging to Shenzhen A8 Electric Coal Holdings Co., Ltd. Our share ratio is 46, that is, you (mobile phone manufacturers) are 6, and we are 4.

Providers of mobile phone value-added services use channels provided by telecom operators. Therefore, information fees are also collected by telecom operators, and operators have to extract a certain usage fee from them. One charges 15%, the other charges 20%. After the operator takes a certain proportion of the share, and then excludes the solution provider's share, the remaining part is divided by the mobile phone value-added service provider and the mobile phone manufacturer according to a certain proportion.