Another Cell Phone Scam

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By Hina Jamal

It all started when I received a call from someone claiming that he was from my mobile service provider and wanted me to shutdown my phone for 2 hours for 3G update to take place. As I was rushing for a meeting, I did not question and shutdown my cell phone.

After about 45 minutes I felt suspicious as the caller had not given me his name or designation etc. I turned on my cell phone and found several calls from my family members. There were also a few calls from the same number that had called me earlier.

I called my parents and was shocked to see that they sounded highly scared and perturbed. They asked me repeatedly if I was safe. It took me time to convince them that I was Okay.

They had received a call from someone claiming that they held me with them and asked for ransom money to let me free. The call looked very realistic and my parents even heard \’my voice\’ crying out loud asking for help. My father was at the bank waiting for their next call to transfer the money when I told him that I was safe, not pay money to anyone and asked him to lodge a police report. A narrow escape!

Right after that I received another call from the guy asking me to shutdown my cell phone for another 1 hour which I refused to do and hung up. They kept calling my cell phone until probably their battery ran out.

I myself lodged the police report and was informed by the officer that quite a many such reports had been filed with the department.  In MOST reported cases the victims had already transferred the money, which was impossible to get back.

Please be careful as this could happen to anyone. The thugs are real professionals and very convincing during the calls.

If you are asked to shut down your cell phone for updates by the service provider, ASK AROUND.

Be Safe and Stay Alert!

Please pass around to your family and friends.

Note: This article is comprised of information received in an email and is produced here for awareness only!


  • It such a shame that our talent is being wasted on such bullshits. I also received a call a week ago claiming that you won 5lack rupees…u can claim it from ur UFONE frenchys, but they were asking me to tell the serial number of 3 500rs card for UFONE. They were speaking like professionals and they had FAKE background noise like if they really are calling from office. Our people are simple, they can be fooled by anyone, if we don’t take a step to spread this up-coming Bullshit, no one will ever do that for out people.

  • wow….its great trick LOL :)

    BAD PEOPLE…POLICE MUST TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY.

  • with all due respects to the wronged. But the scam sounds stupid at best. The parents did not call office or friends? no body rushed to the office? Or place of work?
    And money transfer to an account!?? Totally traceable. … And they kept calling even after the scam was bustedd?? And the user never reported the calling party number for tracing??are u sure its not a figment of over worked imagination…

  • ohh terrible…. thanks for sharing..

    I have one confusion how they get contact numbers of your family..? they already know you?

  • One should be intelligent enough (this is God gifted though) that operator can’t call millions of users requesting them to turn off their phone, when they can’t handle a few thousand customers waiting in que on support helpines.

    Such criminals might be getting your number & your family numbers from you/your friends or operators frenchices. This is very common practice that people use contacts who are employees with mobile operators to get information regarding owners of cell numbers, a common practice in Pakistan. Many Tom, Dick and Harry are in these companies who become “babu” after getting jobs but they are completely ignorant of ethics. You will see such young people trying to impress their friends with their powers to access customer data with cellular operators.

    Unfortunately nothing has been done by PTA to protect rights of customers.

    This reminds me “TPIN” drama by warid in past, but even after enabling it, me and my friends were never asked for a TPIN by anyone on any Warid frenchise and they could access data without it.

    • I totally agree with you Mr. K.A!!
      I’ve seen such type of guys in a hotel few days earlier, they were enjoying their dinner by telling stupid and idiotic shitty billy stories to each other about accessing the customers personal data and they were trying to impress each with their powers to access customer data with cellular operators.
      One of them was saying that yesterday in the office, he received a call with a beautiful female voice, she was quering about some latest packages offered by the company. I was completely shocked by the last words he said. He said, “i have noted down her number and i am gonna call her tonight” and they ended this up with a huge laugh!! what the heck is happening here!! This is completely unlawful and against the privacy policy of the cell phone companies. These toms dicks and harrys really need to get an ethical training before they get to the job and become a babu as you said.

  • A cellphone company can never tell you to shut down ur phone. so even if you receive such a call, dont ask around, just believe that its a scam.
    Secondly, see from which no. are you receiving the call. the official calls are almost always from the respective shortcodes such as 345 for telenor, 333 for ufone etc. Mobilink calls from 100 or 300 i guess, but not sure.

  • Thank you Hina Baji or this nice information – I hope all will remain careful nowonward after this article. I never knew if any such thing was going on. So Big Thanks :) n Keep Smiling and Safe

  • Please be assured that you can spoof your CLI appearing on called party screen, there are such services on Internet, you can choose ANY number as your CLI.

    2nd people sitting in these companies and their frenchises are one of the biggest source of your info being leaked out, 2nd these operators give your connection forms to different small companies for initial verification of documents, such companies are also source of your info being leaked. Such small companies exist in Ali Pur Islamabad, Chandni Chowk Rawalpindi, Khanna Pull..and they operate from small houses.

  • I am agree with you Guys its normal practice in Pakistan and many of cases already reported. So without doubt we have to careful about these thing. Regarding the lucky draw its not a new game in Pakistan, but yesterday i received a call from a telenor number and the guy first start the tape which communicate me the message in such a professional way that i had won Rs. 500000 in Telenor Lucky Draw. after some time a voice is changed and a new man came on to the call and saying the same, i replied ok because i know they are fooling me. i said now what i have to do now, he said can you please tell your name? here i said you declare me a winner in lucky draw and you are calling from Telenor call center and you dont know my name. after listening these words the guy ended the call. There are too many 420s in our country so please be careful about them…….

  • This post itself is like a scam. Do you think that any culprit will give his/her bank account information…. :)

  • The thugs have been looting the innocent people in different ways and tricks.
    Some times they tell about the prize bond and some times in some other pretext.

    Since i m from the telecom company and i had been dealing with such fraud cases quite often .

    One of my friends Mr. K.A said the total involvement of the franchi8ses which leak out the users sensitive information.

    Since i m from the tele sector and here i cannot open all my details , i shall in short say that such a sensitive data of one user cannot be opened to any body else without the permission of compitent court of comptetent authority like Security agencies.

    If any franchsee is found guilty of such trafficing of the sensitive data to the other people needlessly then it is the breach of the law of privacy and there is no second optinion to it . Simply it the punishment .

    A few days back , a case of bank fraud occurred in which the thugs deceived a person and took away the amount from his account in a very deceptive way.

    The main person who was at the fore front was at last nabbed through the hard investigation which i cannoot disclose here . The incidence of bank fraud occurred in islamabad while the person was nabbed in lahore .

    The police put him behind the bars and as the information reached to the affected person in islamabad , he rushed to lahore where our police without any hesitation took a handsome amount from the affected person in order to meet the expenses of the thug nabbed by the police in lahore. The affected person made the payment as desired by the police for keeping that thug in lock up till the further action.

    A few days latter police was informing the affected person that the locked up person has escaped.

    So Hina ,pl remember , no body can reach at the sensitive record of any body until and unles our police is not involved.

    Police helps these criminal minded people to do all these tricks in order to extort the money from the ordinary people and the sensitive information of the people is taken from the franchises and even company head offices by the police some times by thier own links or by force.

    And when my country police gets the call data and present location and other such information of any user , the mis use starts then.

    and there are many cases in which the franchises had delivered such a worthy information without any prior approval of the competent authority or comretent court.

  • Money can’t be transferred back? I think from their bank account number etc police can get info about them

    • AOA Fakhre Alam Shb ,

      FIA can take the record of the bank into thier custudy and see the all transactions.

  • Yes I agree there is too much 420s in Pakistan but unless those who received such calls will not report it to operators nothing will be solved.

    Always call the helpline and inform them about such calls. Just do not sit and feel happy that you did not fell in their scam. Try to help other millions who are not such intelligent as you are. Tell them the number from which you have received the call, even if the caller has disabled his CLI , operators still can trace who has made you the call, so please do inform them.

  • The plot seems to be taken from some Hollywood thriller,

    1- Mobile Operators usually don't call you, unless you ask for their assistance.
    2- Whenever someone calls you, it shows a number, in case of Mobile Operator it should be mostly 3 digit only.
    3- There was a meeting, so it should be the office or some other place. Parents could call the office.
    4- Within 45 minutes Father was standing at the Bank, I say that's quick!
    5- Scammers provide you with a bank account. so you can trace them, how foolish!
    6- They called her again? Really are they Nuts?
    7- Victim lodged a complaint? and the officer was cooperative to tell her that i have received many other complaints like this? I mean are we talking about Pakistan?/Pakistan Police?
    8- Police Officer said that money has been transferred in many cases and can't be undone. Why?
    9- I say that a Mobile operator never ask you to shutdown your cellphone when they can turn off your sim easily.
    10- In short the whole story seems to be fake and seems to be made up !

    • well written,
      parents could call the office, or any friend in the office,
      if father could rush to the bank in 45 min he could have reached to the office instead :D
      Lame!
      People in Pak are already sick of everyday target killing, mobile snatching and multiple of such cases , arent they enuff jo loogon ne ye self made story bhi shuru kerdi hai !

  • Well Miss Hina ,

    how that unknown person c ame to know about u and also about ur family contacts ???

    From where he was getting all that data ?

    there is only one source and it is the company which provided him ur sensitive information.

    Police is the equal parterner with these criminals.

    Police will never help you.

    This is what i bet . Police will never help you Mis. Hina.

    Many cases are there in which if the victum was a resource ful person and he tried to reach the criminals by tracking thier movement and talks , right at the eleventh hour the managed to change thier place & position where the police raided.

    Latter on, it was found that the police informed the deciots prior to the raid. and from the call log of the the police men, the calls between both the parties, Police and deciots, were seen.

    Then came a harsh time upon police to save its skin as the cat went out of the bag. So the pakistani police went down to knees and asking for pardon and some times threats, but any how the police realised that the secret links betwwen the deciots and police are now out thru the call detail of the police men.

    Well police have to make the recovery of the looted goods .

    So this is the state of the affairs of our police.

  • thanks God you are safe..
    and scamming is not too difficult..
    for example, i have a special number. just put your victim’s cell number in that and call them, and they’ll receive the call as “private number”…
    so easy…

  • One more way to get money from innocent peoples through scam, they trap peoples very neatly, they trap her through 3G, if she knew that 3G is far away from Pakistan right now, she didnt going to switched her cell off, thats why i am happy that i have knowledge, and i am always updated, and i have taught the same to my family members If you have knowledge, no one can ever succeed in these fraudulent attempt with you, peoples have tried to make me fool many times, but they didnt achieved what they wanted even one time.

  • Fake Story. If the Bank account number has been given the crook can be traced

  • What are you complaining about – everyday, everyone tries to scam someone here, mobile operators, the electricity company. Suck it up – you are all living the dream ;-)

  • Even these franchises are involved in leaking customer’s information.
    One of our relative bought a Ufone SIM from their Chandni Chowk frachise in Rawalpindi. That SIM was registered on his wife’s NIC. Next day a guy started calling his wife. Luckily that guy was in P.A.F, so easily traced him via GSM Triangulation……and what a beating that franchise guy received….EPIC!!!

  • oh brothers! let her speak out what she say…
    if its real then they have made lot of mistakes (they mean the girl) and if its fake then enjoy it

  • i think guys the best comment is here from cyber storm…

    SO KEEP ENJOING COMMENTS.

  • Lol.. since when did admins of this blog started believing on forwarded emails?

  • agree with all those who disagree with this lame post… :D
    gud work Mr.Zohair chohan..
    absolutely sick story ..
    she got a phone call,she obeys like a nice girl,
    and lo.!! she has also got missed call alerts…!!
    then Stops papa accurately on time and finally the bank account was not traceable..;(
    everything sick and stupid except the traditionally pakistani police drama..”…Sorry bibi ji..we cannot trace ’em..” lolz….

    one more thing guys……
    “..They kept calling my cell phone until probably their battery ran out…”
    i guess why such a group of “professional idiots” dint had a mobile charger to call her back again… :p

  • I’ve also witnessed fake calls from people claiming that they are from my network providers, but they were never able to hunt me down as i am ported on other network while they claim my network to be the one whose network code i am using.

    Though, they never asked me to switch off the fone, but they did tried to create some other kind of shitty scam around.

  • Pakis are not good at making up such stories. There should be bed time story section on this website ;)

  • Its an urban legend. Do a search for following on Google and you can see its been around the world since 2000:

    “All started when I received a call from someone claiming that he was from my mobile service provider and wanted me to shutdown my phone for 2 hours for 3G update ”

    Suckers!

  • Boy this is old story .. :P

    Forget phone scam beware of KESC, PTCL, SSGC guys. Identify the guys and don’t let them in your house without proper verification and also confirm in your family members if anyone made complaint.


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