By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Mobile users in the State are a harried lot these days. Many people have been receiving scores of weird messages in their inboxes every now and then sent from unknown phone numbers and from unknown locations promising lakhs of rupees as jackpots and cash rewards to the ‘lucky winner’ usually in foreign currencies.
The messages, some of which read as: “Congratulations, your mobile number has been selected in an international draw UK 2011. To claim your prize money of £750,000, contact Mr X and send your name, address, e-mail id to the following number.”
Mobile service providers, however, seem to have no clue as to the origin and source of these spam messages which target users.
Experts and mobile company executives have warned mobile users not to pay any heed to these SMSes. “It has been seen that most users don’t give any importance to these messages but certain users may fall prey to these fraud messages,” said a mobile firm executive.
Another executive said messages promising cash reward was an online phenomenon earlier. Since people have now become aware of these spams, fraudsters have now turned their attention to mobile users.
Some executives said these fraudsters usually send the messages in the name of some renowned corporate brand names in order to woo mobile users.
Mobile service providers, police and banks have been repeatedly issuing public warning asking people not to divulge personal details like name, address, mobile number, email address, bank account numbers which can be misused by fraudsters.
There are other forms of fraudulent messages sent from unknown destinations that invite users’ attention for some lucrative job openings in large corporations and asking the sender to provide his personal and professional details and asking for a preliminary ‘security deposit’ of a few thousand rupees for processing the job offer and arranging for the traveling expenses etc.
It is also observed that many unsuspecting users respond to these messages in hope of pocketing the promised sum of money. These messages have premium charges of Rs 8 to Rs 10.
Police officials, however, said that could do little if users chose to respond to such messages.
Incidentally, there are no existing laws in the country against such acts of cyber and mobile related crimes.