Taiwan Mobile Co was fined NT$1.2 million (US$39,143) for failing to thoroughly verify the identities of service applicants, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said on Wednesday.
Commission spokesperson Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said a woman had filed a complaint that a Taiwan Mobile franchise store had used her national ID card number to apply for new cellphone numbers without her consent, including a number for 3G service and two numbers for 4G service.
She told the commission she knew nothing about the applications until she received telephone bills from the company for the new numbers, Wong said.
The company was fined for failing to authenticate the identities of service applicants by asking for two formal documents, such as a national ID card, a National Health Insurance card or a driver’s license, Wong said.
The penalty was handed down after Taiwan Mobile was fined NT$100,000 in January for revealing the user’s personal information to a third party.
The commission said that other telecoms have experienced similar incidents, noting that between 2014 and last year, Taiwan Mobile and Far Eastone Telecommunications had six such incidents, while Chunghwa Telecom had four.
“We hope that the penalty this time would remind telecom companies that they need to make sure that applicants present two ID cards when applying for services,” he said.
Taiwan Mobile on Wednesday issued a statement saying that the penalty was for an incident that occurred in 2014, and that it was also a victim because of the franchise store owner’s actions.
The company planned to sue the franchise owner to seek restitution, the statement added.
The company said it found several problems with the complaint.
The franchise store owner and the user who filed a complaint are friends and the company’s investigation found that three cellphone numbers became Taiwan Mobile numbers through the government’s number portability policy, which allows users to retain a telephone numbers after switching carriers, the statement said.
Records show the complainant had made regular payments for months after she switched the numbers from the old carriers to Taiwan Mobile, and before filing her complaint, she had personally canceled one of the numbers in a Taiwan Mobile retail store and had canceled another number which she later resumed using, the company said.
“This incident was more complicated than it appears. We will not tolerate anyone who deliberately uses loopholes for their own gains and will seek the truth through the legal proceedings,” the company said.
In related news, cable service operators must secure the consent of its subscribers and verify their identities before they can change the terms of their contracts or service charges.
Wong said that the commission had learned that a cable TV system under multiple service operator Kbro Co offered subscribers high-definition (HD) channels for free for three months, but after the trial period, it started charging without asking if they wanted to continue accessing the service.
The operator said that it had sent users text messages informing them that the company was going to being charging them for the HD channels, Wong said.
That was not enough for the operator to impose charges, he said.
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