A Chinese-made smartphone import company has announced that, from today, it has stopped selling ‘OPPO’ and ‘Realme’ smartphones pre-installed with the third-party “Fineasy” loan app and that the application in question will no longer be pre-installed on OPPO devices.
In its latest statement, OPPO said that all current OPPO smartphone users will receive an Over the Air (OTA) update, which will be free from the loan app on January 16.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Consumer Protection Board has summoned representatives of OPPO to explain the pre-installation of the loan application.
Prime Minister’s Office Minister Jiraporn Sindhuprai, who is in charge of the Office of the Consumer Protection Board, said today that the board is accepting complaints from the phone users and, if damage has been caused, the board will take appropriate action against the OPPO company.
She declined to respond when asked whether the sale of OPPO and Realme smartphones should be banned, saying that the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society will deal with this issue and will also be talking to the company.
Meanwhile the ‘True Money’ and ‘Essence Money’ companies, which are affiliated with True Corporation, announced that their True Money application, which provides electronic payment and loan services, are legally registered and permitted by the Bank of Thailand and must be downloaded by the user voluntarily.
The two companies maintain that they give the highest priority to the protection of user transactions. The companies say that have also deployed AI to protect users’ accounts from hackers and scammers.
