Telecoms warn customers of fraudulent calls

RIYADH: Telecom companies have warned citizens and residents against fraudulent notices sent by unidentified sources for bogus prize winning calls and announcements.
Some telecom companies have received complaints from consumers about callers asking them for their personal information, claiming that they had won prizes.
Hussein Mohammed, an Egyptian teacher, talked to Arab News about this problem saying that he received a phone call from someone speaking Arabic with a foreign accent, telling him that he had won SR100,000.
The caller told him that he would receive a message from the telecom company with a number, stressing that he should never give that number to anyone but the one who called him.
Hussein said he felt that there was something wrong with the call since he doesn't believe anyone is ever telephoned to be told about their winning prizes. So he blocked the number.
A woman, who asked for anonymity, said that she received a call from someone claiming he was from her telecom company and that she had won a prize and needed to give him the code that he had just sent to her on her mobile.
Feeling suspicious about that call, she called the telecom company asking the customer service about that code.
“I was shocked when I learned that this code would allow anyone who receives it to find out all my personal information such as my ID number, bank account, the password of any account if I receive a message on my phone from it, and my location. That’s why I thanked Allah that I did not give that man this code,” she said.