Five major mobile service providers - Viettel, VinaPhone, MobiFone, Vietnamobile, and the virtual network I-Telecom blocked more than 89,600 mobile subscribers spreading spam calls in the last six months of 2020, according to the Department of Telecom under the Ministry of Information and Communications.

More than 89,600 mobile subscribers spreading spam were blocked in the last six months of 2020. (Photo: VNA)

In December 2020 alone, the providers handled 17,290 subscribers, of which 7,844 by Viettel (45 percent), 7,301 by VinaPhone (42 percent), 1,155 by MobiFone (7 percent), 868 by I-Telecom (5 percent), and 122 by Vietnamobile (1 percent).

A representative from the department said that in the future, it will work closely with the mobile service suppliers to enhance the public and businesses’ awareness of spam numbers and spam messages, encouraging them to use registered SIM cards.

Spam calls and messages are delivered mostly to advertise products and services, such as offers to sell houses, apartments, and condotels, and include invitations to buy insurance policy, use financial services and register for English training courses.

The subjects that deliver spam calls and messages use sophisticated technical measures which change regularly to fool appropriate agencies. It can be difficult dealing with this kind of violation.

State management agencies have called on people to join forces with agencies and telecom carriers to prevent calls.

Earlier in last July, the department coordinated with the subscribers to launch a number of technical solutions using Big Data and Machine Learning to identify subscribers with signs of spreading spam calls and messages.

Source: VNA