RIYADH, 24 January 2005 — A text message from the Philipines was recently received by a Filipino engineer in Jeddah. It informed him that he had won 2 million pesos (about $40,000) as a “Christmas award from the Central Bank.”
He was told to call Governor Rafael Beunaventura and given an official-looking license number for the contest.
This particular engineer was luckier than most. When he phoned his sister in the Philippines, she told him that the message was probably a hoax and that it was the newest way to swindle money from overseas Filipinos.
If the engineer had responded to the message, he would most likely have been told to deposit a relatively small sum of money in a certain bank account; once this was done, the larger sum would then be released.
In fact, once the smaller sum is deposited, the person making the deposit receives no further word from the swindler and any calls to his mobile phone number go unanswered.
This is a variation of a number of earlier scams, often originating from Nigeria, which targeted Saudi and Gulf Arab businessmen.
Another scam which has appeared since the introduction of roaming SIM is the foreign pre-paid mobile card.
These are available everywhere at a variety of prices with a wide range of trademarks.
The cards provide a number to be used but when the card is sent to the person’s family, it proves to be invalid.
Usually the swindlers simply make a copy of an original card and sell the worthless copy to unsuspecting individuals.
