Terminated: More than 12,000 telephone numbers which promoted online gambling

KUALA LUMPUR: Beginning September, a total of 12,449 telephone numbers which were used to promote online gambling, via short message service (SMS) were terminated.
The communications and multimedia ministry in a written reply at the Dewan Rakyat today, said the move was taken through Section 263 (2) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, in directing service provider companies to terminate the said phone numbers.
"Based on the analysis by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), the SMS which spread gambling elements did not target specific users.
"On the other hand, the spread of the SMS was by spam or by mass distribution in a random or sequential manner, without knowing the registered user of the phone number, or whether the phone number is active," it said.
Earlier, Datuk Normala Abdul Samad (BN-Pasir Gudang) had wanted to know what action the ministry had taken to curb online gambling on the web and in applications such as smart phone WeChat, WhatsApp and others.
The ministry said the MCMC had been working with the service providers in detecting the spread of SMS, as well as providing screening system to block the sending of SMS promoting gambling activities.
As a result, complaints received by MCMC declined from 194 in March to 40 complaints in September, it added.
As for activities promoting online gambling via social networking sites and smartphone applications, it said MCMC had received 1,161 complaints from the public between 2015 and September this year.
"With regard to these complaints, the Commission took the step of gathering information, identifying relevant details and then sharing the information with the police for further investigations," added the ministry. — Bernama