Scam artists target etisalat subscribers

Dubai: Etisalat mobile subscribers are being targeted by fraudsters posing as the employees of the telecom provider saying they have won cash prizes in order to extract bank details from them, Gulf News has learned.

Subscribers of the telecom company have complained about receiving phone calls from Pakistan based numbers notifying them of prizes they have won and asking for personal account details to transfer the amounts.

The suspected fraudsters, however, do not seem to be very sophisticated.

They often leave missed calls and ask their potential victims if they can speak Hindi, Urdu or Bengali, as those are the only languages they speak.

"When I returned the missed call and was told that I had won $100,000 (Dh367,300). I asked the other party why etisalat would give me a missed call from a Pakistani number. It was clear from the very beginning that this was a case of fraud," said Vikas VR, an etisalat mobile subscriber from India.

Vikas however decided to play along. "They asked for my address and I told them to send it to my office. They pretended to take it down but when I asked them to repeat it, they cut the line," he said.

etisalat said it was unaware of this and cautioned clients not to be duped.

"Fraud [over] SMS and emails has unfortunately become a reality. etisalat sincerely advises its customers to be careful not to divulge any confidential information," an official said.