Millions of Russians suffering Mobile Phone Scams

According to a report this week, Russian MNO Vimpelcom said that over 10m have been scammed by Mobile phone scammers, calling them to transfer money. Apparently there are legal loopholes which prevent the police et al from protecting against this.

Most scams are based on people’s trust instinct – either suggesting a relative is in trouble unless a bribe is paid, or sending SMSs to say that in order to collect a prize, money must first be transferred to another account. Another less savoury trick is to post a letter on the internet regarding a very sick child, and then directing all enquiries to a premium-rate number.

Victimes rarely get their money back and MNOs cannot intervene as the vicim opted to transfer voluntarily.

Comment: these sorts of scams are really common – whilst I can’t speak for the rest of Europe/Globally, certainly in the UK this has been going on for ages, and some of it has been legislated against. But in my view it’s not really a “Mobile” thing – whichever enablers (be it the internet, telephony, postal, or face to face) are available will be used by criminals.

[Via: Moscow News Weekly]