Hackers target Indian telephone card users

Hackers are cheating UAE-based customers who use call cards from Tata Indicom, according to some victims.

"There's a big racket going on and such an unreliable service is not good for the long-term prospects of this kind of service," said one customer, an engineer from Mumbai.

The scratch cards, sold by returning vacationers, allow users to place calls from GCC countries to India through an 800 number.

Tata Indicom's cards are extremely popular as they allow at least 10 minutes more call time than an Etisalat card to call India for about the same price.

"I don't understand how someone else can use my call credit before I even scratch the card. I just don't want anybody else to be cheated of their hard-earned telephone credit," Jai, who lost Tata Indicom credits on two call cards last week, told Gulf News.

Some users think it is possible the access codes written on the scratch cards may have been stolen and found their way onto the black market.

An Etisalat official told Gulf News they are aware of the 800 service but gave no comments on the apparent hacking incidents.

Tata Indicom's customer service agents said they had yet to find out who was behind the call-credit thefts.

"We also had similar problems reported by customers in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain," a service agent said.

Vendors sell Tata Indicom cards in Dubai's Baniyas Square. In another incident, a second scratch card Jai bought was already empty when he tried to use it on December 18.

Tata Indicom provided the telephone number that usurped the scratch card code and the call time.

When Gulf News asked the caller who had apparently used the stolen credit, he declined to say where he got the scratch-card number.

Sanjay, a salesman, initially denied knowing anything about it.

When told that his number was provided by Tata Indicom, he later admitted using the same account that Gulf News learnt belonged to Jai.

"I'm a simple salesman. I had no clue something like this was happening. We were hanging out with some friends on Naif Road and I learnt about these cheap but clear calls," he said.

"I didn't know I was using a hacked line. The vendor, who was going around offering the same service to others, charged me Dh12 at the end of the call that must have lasted 10 minutes. I grabbed the chance.

"I thought it's a clean line and it's sold on the market like any other prepaid service," he said.

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