Student escapes charges, company admits mistakes

Student escapes charges, company admits mistakes

BANDUNG, West Java (JP): A Malaysian student escaped charges
of telephone fraud after the state owned telecommunication
company PT Telkom admitted that it was negligent in installing a
faulty international call facility at a public phone.

Malaysian Nurul Anwar, a student at Padjajaran University
here, was apprehended by Telkom officials when making a long
distance call to Malaysia at a public phone in the university
compound.

Officials seized Nurul after receiving reports that Nurul had
manipulated a telephone card to make free international
connections.

"After being questioned for 40 minutes, Nurul was allowed to
go home. It is the fault of PT Telkom employees," Deni M. Aziza,
head of PT Multisaka Mitra, a company contracted by the state-own
telephone company PT Telkom, said.

According to Deni when Nurul used the telephone chip card to
make a long distance call, the telephone displayed "dialed number
free" after she pressed the international call connection.

"First she was surprised as the amount in the telephone card
did not decrease at all. She then took advantage of that. We let
her go as this is totally not her mistake," Deni said.

Deni admitted that there was little control over international
connection facilities at public phones. (25)