Muscat: The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has launched a public consultation as part of its plans to protect beneficiaries from spam and scam messages.
TRA said that there has been a significant rise in unsolicited messages, leading to increased consumer annoyance and a surge in users' complaints.
The authority said it will issue a regulation to address this issue, which will be mandatorily followed and implemented by all telecommunications service providers.
The regulations will focus on implementing measures to protect telecommunications users from scam messages, contracting procedures for licensees with aggregators responsible for SMS services, and regulating spam and scam SMS by the proposed regulatory requirements, apart from determining penalties.
"As cyber security is a concern for all stakeholders, it is necessary to invest more in improving their technology to protect the end users. There is a collaboration with other entities in Oman to have a bigger role when it comes to cybersecurity," TRA said.
Royal Oman Police (ROP) too have been urging mobile users to be vigilant as fraudsters across the globe, including in the sultanate, constantly find ways to exploit people for financial gain, especially by scamming people out of their hard-earned money.
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