It is not unusual for Nguyen Viet Dung to receive ad SMSes from his mobile network operator Vinaphone, but the one coming into his inbox on April 21 left him nothing but a burning rage.
Dung was working at his office when a message from Vinaphone’s 18001091 call center arrived, and he was “filled with anger after reading it,” the 28-year-old white-collar worker based in Hanoi told newswire Mot The Gioi on Wednesday.
“An eight-year-old boy suddenly died [from measles] at a pediatrics hospital; more than 10,000 cases of measles throughout the country – these are the video clips that have attracted the most viewers as of now,” the message reads, as shown in a photo capturing his mobile phone’s screen published by the newswire.
The SMS was intended to invite subscribers to register for a service that will provide them with the latest and hottest video clips.
Subscribers can use the service for free in the first week, and will have to pay VND5,000 (US$0.24) per week after that period, according to the message.
To encourage registration, Vinaphone, one of the three that are dominating Vietnam’s telecom market, cited the two clips related to measles, a contagious viral disease that is spreading like wildfire in the country, as one of the most viewed videos, an act Dung said was “inhuman and heartless.”
“I don’t know how much revenue Vinaphone will generate from this service but it is inhuman for such a giant firm to make money on the deaths and sorrows of their compatriots,” he told the news website.
Many other Vinaphone subscribers also received the controversial ad message, and the mobile firm was immediately greeted with a widespread outrage as the recipients reported the issue on forums and social networks.
More than 3,600 measles cases have been reported in 61 out of the 63 cities and provinces across Vietnam and 131 children have died of the disease since it recurred late last year, according to updated statistics released by the Ministry of Health on Friday.
Vinaphone responded to the crisis one day after it made the headlines, saying there was a mistake in composing the ad message.
“The titles of the two measles-related video clips were inappropriately prepared out of a mistake and caused misunderstanding among subscribers about our video service,” Vinaphone said in a statement released on Thursday.
The mobile firm stopped sending the ad message and removed the two video clips from its server right after receiving complaints from subscribers, according to the statement.
The mobile network operator also sent its apology to members of the public for the incident.
Đăng ký: VietNam News