Many mobile phone users in South Africa have voiced complaints about running out of airtime and being hit with unforeseen fees for subscription services. Subscriptions from wireless application service providers (WASP) sometimes charge customers for material without their knowledge or agreement. WASP memberships provide access to games, ringtones, and other entertainment, from porn to sports.
The subscriptions either use up pre-paid data and airtime or appear as “content” costs on contract holders’ smartphone bills. Thousands of mobile users have reportedly discreetly signed up for rogue Wasps’ multimedia subscription services each month. The ability to charge subscribers’ accounts for services is provided by mobile operators to these Wasps, and it is believed that they use this access to charge subscribers against their will.
How to Cancel Subscription on MTN
MTN is one of the largest mobile communication networks in the nation. You could have to cancel subscriptions as a consumer if you find yourself in that position. When they begin to lose airtime, people typically realize something is wrong. Perhaps you, or a friend or family member, have a Wireless Application Services Providers (WASP) subscription. If you are already keeping track of everything mentioned above and your airtime is still being used alarmingly, a WASP may be to blame. Wireless Access Service Providers (WASPs) charge a fee for a variety of content services, usually per day. These fees are debited from your prepaid airtime or applied to your phone bill.
A user would typically have to choose to use a WASP service to sign up for it. But in the past, rogue WASPs managed to get through network security measures and massively stole airtime from South African mobile consumers. Although there are no official statistics on airtime theft in South Africa, estimations from the industry have suggested that billions have been taken over the past ten years. These WASPs employ dubious methods like clickjacking, and in some instances, they have even taken advantage of mobile networks’ systems to trick people into subscribing against their will.
These are the background programs that consume the most airtime
To stop subscriptions on MTN, you need to take the following steps
- Dial *136*5# on your MTN phone
- Next, choose Content Services
- From there, choose Manage Premium Rated Services
- Now you need to choose Charges (Option 2)
- On the next screen, choose Block Premium Rated Services
- Now you need to block Premium Rated Services (PRS) charges. Dial *155# on your phone and go to the next page by press 99 (More)
- Now choose Block/Unblock future charges
- Choose Premium rated services
How Did I Get Subscriptions on my MTN SIM?
Why there are subscriptions on your phone may be a mystery to you. Well, usually it’s your actions that bring them there. Subscriptions rarely arrive there on their own. Perhaps you have used a service that caught your attention. You promptly lost all memory of it. In that instance, premium services have access to your phone, and you are now wasting airtime.
The majority of WASP memberships involve trickery to entice users to sign up. In one way or another, they attract you, and you initially perceive it as a favorable offer. However, as time passes, you will start to run out of airtime. You are attempting to understand how to cancel MTN subscriptions for this reason.
How do I stop my MTN airtime from disappearing?
Through several networks’ platforms, South African mobile users can avoid having their airtime evaporate or paying exorbitant phone bills. Every nickel is valuable since many South Africans can only afford to purchase a small quantity of prepaid airtime each month. The majority of contract customers also don’t have the benefit of having a limitless credit limit on their accounts.
Some usage behaviors that could drain your airtime quickly include:
- High app activity and background data usage
- Sending many SMSs to premium-rate numbers
- High USSD usage
USSD
- Dial *141*5#
- Select option 2 – Content Services
- Select option 1 – Manage Content Services to view or cancel subscriptions
- Select option 2 – Manage Premium Rated Services to set spend limits for PRS or opt-out of PRS marketing.
Block PRS charges
- Dial *155#
- Select option 99 – more
- Select option 4 – Block/Unblock future charges
- Select option 2 – Premium-rated services
Block PRS marketing
- Dial *155#
- Select option 3 – Stop third-party messages
Fraud detection with machine learning
MTN introduced several innovative anti-fraud procedures to address these new WASP scam patterns. One of these is a software called Secure-D that MTN introduced in 2018. It detects fraud and blocks it.“Secure-D is embedded into MTN’s user consent page. In addition to using many deterministic methods to prevent fraud in real-time, it uses various machine learning models to help detect different suspicious activities, “the company stated.” “For example, programmatic button clicks and user agent spoofing use different models.”
MTN reported that after using Secure-D in September 2018, it saw a 92% blocking rate in 2019. The blocking rate dropped to 46% in 2020 as a result of Secure-D having already stopped web ad fraud in 2019, which made the industry undesirable for fraudsters.MTN acknowledged that certain click fraud can evade its systems despite its best efforts.“That is why we have implemented additional measures to prevent the scourge of click fraud from impacting our customers,” said MTN.
“Even if a bot or malware has subscribed someone to service, our double opt-in requirement forces a confirmation button to be clicked. In addition, we send an SMS to the customer advising them that they have been subscribed to a service and giving them 24 hours to cancel the subscription without being charged.”MTN claimed that since putting the fraud detection software in place in 2018 and enforcing rigorous regulations and procedures, it has observed a 73% drop in the number of inquiries about fraud across all of its customer support services.
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