Police warn of mobile phone message frauds
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-07-04 20:13

Guangzhou residents were targeted by mobile phone thieves recently who were sending fraudulent messages asking for recharging fees, the Guangzhou Daily reported.

Police said such text messages could be traps.

“They usually received a text message like ‘I had an accident on the highway, and I need to make an emergency call to my family. But I have less than one yuan (US$0.12) credit on my mobile and can not find a shop to buy prepaid cards,’” a spokesman of the municipal public security bureau said.

The thieves would then ask people to buy prepaid phone cards and tell them the PIN numbers by text messages.

A woman surnamed Chen said she had been caught by the scam.

“I followed the text message and sent the PIN number to my friend’s mobile,” she said. “My friend said in the message that he would pay me back as soon as possible.”

But Chen later found her friend’s mobile had just been stolen, and the thief sent similar text messages to all numbers recorded on the phone.

Guangzhou’s consumer committee and the 1860 China Mobile hotline received many similar reports recently. They said it was unnecessary to send the PIN number because the card buyer could recharge a phone number immediately.

“It is hard to arrest the thieves, as they use a stolen mobile phone to commit crimes,” police said.

The police said people should be cautious of any text message asking them to send a prepaid card PIN, and should try to contact their friends immediately.

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