News on the previous post...
Beware of "missed call" mobile phone scam By Tan Yi Hui - Sept 22, 2006
AsiaOne
The next time you receive a "missed call" alert from a China number starting with +86 on your mobile phone, think twice before rushing to return it - unless you know the caller.
Or you may literally play into the hands of a racket, believed to be operating out of China. And end up having to pay a very high charge, as the call is redirected to a premium rate telephone service.
On returning the number, the caller is then told he has won a prize and stands to win a higher chance by calling a second number. If the caller falls for this, he will be charged a premium rate for the second call too.
The victim ends up facing a hefty phone bill for the calls.
For example, callers from Australia who have been dubed were charged A$2.97 a minute for returned calls.
Some mobile phone users told AsiaOne that they had recently received such "missed call" alerts from a number in China (+86). They did not fall for it because they said they were aware of this scam.
When contacted, SingTel, Starhub and M1 said that they had alerted their customers to such scams and advised them to ignore the "missed call" alert.
But IDA said it had not received any complaints from members of the public falling prey to this scam.
Responding to queries from AsiaOne, an IDA spokesperson said: "Since this involves an overseas number, which is obviously a roaming number, it is difficult for us to track, and is out of our jurisdiction". IDA advises users to be "prudent" when responding to such calls.
Singaporean falls victim to China phone scamSunday October 1, 2006
AT LEAST one Singaporean has fallen victim to the China-based mobile phone scam featured in a Straits Times report this week, which promises users thousands of dollars in “winnings.”
A 35-year-old man, who would only give his name as Cee, contacted the newspaper after reading Wednesday's news report, saying he had already sent US$300 (RM1,136) and was planning to send more.
Under the scam, phone users are selected at random. Operators then call them from a Chinese number, let the phone ring once and then hang up, hoping the recipients will be curious enough to call back.
Users who respond hear a recorded message telling them they have won US$88,000 (RM333,200) in a lucky draw. They are then asked to leave their names and contact numbers via voicemail.
A person claiming to be a representative of a “Long Fa Corporation” then calls these “lucky winners”, who are told that they need to pay almost S$2,000 (RM4,449) in administrative fees before they can collect their winnings.
Cee received the bank details via SMS from the Long Fa representative, who called himself Wang Guo Hai, and sent US$300 to the Bank of China account of a “Xu Xue Feng” via telegraphic transfer. He was on the verge of sending US$880 (RM3,332) more when he read The Straits Times’ report.
When The Straits Times contacted Wang, he promised the paper US$88,000 upon receipt of the administrative fee. When asked if the contest was genuine, he replied in Mandarin: “The contest is genuine, I wouldn’t joke about this.” – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
Another way of scamming...
Beijingers fall victim to SMS scamBy Cao Desheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-12 05:44
A Beijing resident surnamed Wang never thought a text message on his mobile phone would cost him more than 150,000 yuan (US$18,500).
Last week, Wang was stunned by a message that claimed he had bought items with his credit card that totalled more than 18,000 yuan (US$2,200). He said he had not used the card.
A bank clerk shows the content of a text message scam in Haian, Jiangsu Province September 30, 2005. [newsphoto]
Anxious, he dialled the number that the message left to contact the bank staff, and he was asked on the telephone to leave his card number and password for further identification. Later Wang found the spending limit on his account had been reached. When he redialled the contact number, there was no response.
Wang's case turned out to be high-tech fraud, and he is only one of many who were cheated through a short message service (SMS) via mobile phone.
The Beijing branch of China Unionpay, a national bankcard information exchange network, reported it had received thousands of inquiries from worried credit card holders about their accounts during the just-ended National Day "golden week."
China has more than 370 million mobile phone users, and hundreds of millions of short, or text, messages are sent every day, making it a profitable value-added service.
But mobile phone subscribers are frequently inundated with unsolicited SMS transmissions, from lewdness and sexual services real or virtual to cheap airline ticket ads and other marketing ploys.
There is no official data on the extent of the problem, but many mobile phone users in China have complained of receiving suggestive short-message spam, pornography and other illegal content.
"Legally, the sending of short messages containing text or pictures with pornographic content or false content, violates regulations, pollutes society and spreads a very bad influence," an expert from the Ministry of Information Industry said. The telecom industry regulator needs to expand its oversight of telecom operators and service providers, said the expert from the Telecom Institute under the ministry who gave only his surname, Lu.
The ministry has already launched a campaign to check telecom operators and service providers this month.
(China Daily 10/12/2005 page2)
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Sorry lor.. now not I being bias or bad or what... but... ALL THE BAD THINGS ARE FROM CHINA... =/ I wonder if we can counter back by.... setting their tel no. into an ICQ acct u made... den keep on send msg to their phone.... XDDDD well... dun anyhow try... sekali they sue us back... =/
