Ooredoo, Qatar’s leading telecommunications provider, yesterday announced all transactions carried out on Ooredoo tv will now require the input of a Purchase PIN in order to activate the request. 
The new procedure means every time a customer attempts to make a purchase – whether a subscription to a service or an on-demand movie rental – the Ooredoo tv system will ask for a PIN number to be input in order to confirm the purchase has been initiated and authorised by the registered account holder. 
Manar Khalifa al-Muraikhi, director, public relations and corporate communications at Ooredoo, said: “Keeping our customers’ data safe and secure is of paramount importance to Ooredoo, and we are committed to ensuring all transactions made through Ooredoo tv are safe, secure and initiated only by the authorised customer. We understand it’s an extra step when customers are accessing our services, but we know they’ll appreciate it’s to keep them and their data as safe as possible, and to prevent any unauthorised transactions being allowed to occur.” 
Customers who already have an existing Purchase PIN need only input it each time they initiate a transaction, while customers who have yet to set up their PIN will simply need to send an SMS to 115, from their registered mobile number, with the text ‘MPIN’ followed by their 8-digit landline number. So, if the landline number is 12345678, they should send ‘MPIN 12345678’. A personalised Purchase PIN will then be sent to them. Customers who are new to Ooredoo tv should follow the same procedure. 
In order to ensure this new safeguard is not accidentally switched off, Ooredoo is also removing the option to deactivate Purchase PIN requirement, further ensuring the security of all transactions initiated on Ooredoo tv.