How Many People Have Phones in Your Name?

RIYADH, 5 May 2007 — Many people who visit the Saudi Telecom offices to get a cell phone number have been shocked by the revelation that their names and ID numbers have already been used a number of times without their consent or knowledge to subscribe for STC’s mobile phone services.

To get around the problem, Saudi Telecom has introduced a very useful service that allows people to find the mobile numbers that are being used by others under their names and then cancel them.

To use the service a customer only has to text-message “9988” to 902, and within seconds he would get a reply listing all the telephone numbers that are registered under his name and ID.

“This is one of the several 902 electronic services that has been introduced for the convenience of the subscribers,” Jameel Mulhim, marketing manager for STC’s Al-Jawal services, told Arab News yesterday.

If there is any discrepancy, the customer should bring it to the notice of the STC by contacting 902 over the phone, Mulhim said, adding that the company would rectify its records and if necessary remedial action would be taken to avoid such recurrence.

Mohammed Riaz, an STC subscriber who has two mobile numbers, said that by using the new service he found out there were four more numbers registered under his name. He is in the process of correcting his records now.

Mohamed Faiz, a former banker who is now working in a contracting company, said that he had discovered an unknown number in his name and had reported the case to the STC.

A journalist in Riyadh found out he had four additional numbers. When he called one of the “unknown” numbers in his list provided by the STC, he said, a stranger answered the phone.

Mulhim advised customers to complain to 902 only after checking their personal records. “Some subscribers get mobile connections to family members, domestic servants and even friends and they tend to forget them later,” he said.

The STC recently launched a service that allows Al-Jawal subscribers to instantly block their numbers in case they lose phone sets and thus prevent anyone from using the collect call service.