JEDDAH: The Pakistani diplomatic mission yesterday asked its community to be vigilant about mobile phone calls from fraudsters and inform its welfare sections in Riyadh and Jeddah about such acts.
Instances have come to the notice of the Embassy of Pakistan that some swindlers have deprived innocent Pakistanis of their money by offering them fake prizes of millions of riyals in lucky draws.
They call them on the SAWA or Mobily phones and tell them of the draws and ask them to buy a rechargeable card of sufficient riyals and convey them the activation numbers for processing the encashment of hefty prizes.
Such calls are fraudulent and the draws fictitious. As such they are deprived of their hard-earned money, a consulate press release said, emphasizing that neither SAWA nor Mobily has conducted lucky draws, nor offered any prize money.
“Normally these swindlers use Pakistani mobile numbers for doing such fraudulent acts and innocent expatriates fall victim to such practices,” the statement said urging the community to be extremely vigilant about such malpractices.
Meanwhile, the consulate announced that on the transfer of Chaudhry Shaukat Ali, vice consul (welfare), Muhammad Nasrullah Khan has succeeded him and in that capacity he will also act as Nikah registrar.
