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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]
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
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