Phone fraudsters bombard the Sultanate with more than a million ‘missed calls’ on average every month — one of an array of telecom scams that target local mobile subscribers, according to a key fraud investigator at Omantel. Faisal Ali Saif al Busaidi, a fraud management specialist at the nation’s largest telecoms provider, said an assessment of the scam recently revealed that an estimated four million missed calls were received by Omantel subscribers alone during a three-month period. The expert made the revelation on the second day of the Telecom Laws and Regulations Forum under way at Grand Hyatt Muscat yesterday. The three-day event has been organised by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of Oman.
Also known as ‘Wangiri’, which in Japanese means ‘one ring and cut’, the scam typically involves a computer dialing a large number of mobile phones at random. Recipients thinking the call to be legitimate, call back only to discover later that their credit is drained or they have called a premium number that attracts higher call tariffs. Wangiri scammers targeting the Sultanate, however, are tricksters who try to con their victims out of some money by dishing out some made-up story about a tragedy or personal problem, according to Al Busaidi.
In his presentation, the expert also listed a number of other types of telecom scams that typically target subscribers in the Sultanate. A more familiar type of racket involves text messages (SMS) sent by the scammers telling their unsuspecting victims they have won RO 20,000 in prize money. “When the subscriber responds, he is typically asked to transfer a small amount, usually RO 5 or RO 10, to facilitate the transfer of the prize money. In a period of five months alone, Muscat-based subscribers were swindled to the tune of around RO 200,000 by these crooks,” Al Busaidi said, stressing that the service providers in question cannot be held responsible for these crimes.
“Nevertheless, we are committed to handling any complaints received from our subscribers, and investigating them seriously, and where evidence has been collected, referring the cases to the Royal Oman Police and Public Prosecution,” he noted.
Yet another phone scam making the rounds involves fraudsters telling their would-be prey that they have won cash prizes. Explaining the modus operandi of the con-artist, the expert said: “The caller, claiming to belong to one of the service providers, lists the first few digits on the subscriber’s SIM card.
“The subscriber, to his surprise, does find the numbers to be correct and believing the caller to the legitimate then proceeds to fall into his trap. In fact, many subscribers are unaware about SIM card numbers.
All SIM cards have a serial number that begins with some digits specific to a country, followed by more digits specific to a service provider. So all Omantel subscribers will have a common initial set of digits.”