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Qtel warns of 'free Hummer' SMS scam(TradeArabia Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Qtel, Qatar's leading telecom services provider, has issued an alert to customers to be aware of a new fraudulent SMS message, which has been sent to thousands of people across Qatar over the past 24 hours. The text message reads, "Congratulations, you have won a Hummer 2009" and then provides a fifteen digit number to call to collect the prize, starting with 0042 366. However, the SMS alert is not an authorised contest in Qatar, and Qtel believes that the people behind the message are seeking to lure people into calling a premium overseas number with expensive per-minute international call charges, and trying to collect private and financial details when the call is put through. Qtel is working to trace and block the lines that are provided in the SMS message. However, typically the gangs behind these scams change numbers and locations and continue to send the fraudulent messages. This is the second attempt detected this year to send fraudulent messages requesting people to call numbers starting with the prefix 0042 366 – the international calling code for Liechtenstein, a country with a population of less than 36,000 people. In both attempts, Qtel believes these are sophisticated operations targeted specifically at the people of Qatar, using Call Forwarding to disguise the call's country of origin. Qtel is reminding customers that no legitimate contests licensed in Qatar will use SMS to contact winners and request they call a premium or overseas number. In addition, when customers use their call forwarding feature, they should always verify the number before they forward their phone. As well as safeguarding their mobile numbers, Qtel also advises customers to exercise caution when they receive calls or messages from unknown numbers. In addition to alerting the public via the media, Qtel also uses a range of SMS, mobile and online techniques to ensure the public is safeguarded from fraud of this kind. – TradeArabia News Service (c) 2009 Al Hilal Publishing & Marketing Group Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |