The mobile version of the famous 419 Nigerian Scam?

IMPORTANT UPDATE : Such kind of Messages STRICTLY PROHIBITED:

Congrats Your Mobile number has won $350,000 USD on the on going 2009 INTL Heineken Light Award. To claim contact Mrs. Linda Jones on liveheineken09@live.com

OR

CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOUR MOBILE HAS WON 150,000 POUNDS FOR(SHELL)INTL MOBILE DRAW HELD ON 12/6/2009.CONTACT DR.MAXWELL EMAIL:ID,spdcwld2009@live.com


WARNING: Nowadays, in india, some foreigners, particularly Nigerians & UK based people are sending the faudulent & scam like messages, SMS mentioning `YOUR MOBILE HAS WON 150,000 POUNDS`by refering reputed companies. If you have received such message then please ignore it & do not respond to such messages.

Other related information about these SMS scams.

Statement: SMS Scam
It has recently come to our attention that an SMS scam is in operation in India, purporting to be endorsed and supported by some world renowned companies.

This scam falsely claims that they have selected the recipient mobile number out of thousands of phone numbersand that they have won a prize of £700,000 or big amount like this. The sender then requires the recipient disclose personal information via email or SMS or phone with their personal information like NAME, ADDRESS & PHOTo ID CARD and then once the documents are sent they will ask you to deposite some money for e.g. £630 as other charges before the prize can be collected.

In the case of the Advance Fee scam, you would be asked for personal information, possibly a scan of your passport or drivers license (Which may be misused again for any such crime or scam). You may also be asked for your banking details too. This seemingly insignificant data can lead to Identity Theft. However, once getting through that stage, you will be asked to pay a fee. The fee may be for taxes, clearance, insurance... whatever. THAT is the scam, and if you pay, you loose.


We strongly discourages recipients to disclose personal information and/or the sending of money to this organization.

Also the other face of such scam is as given below.

“Unsolicited fraudulent SMS’s are being sent to various subscribers informing them that they have won a prize and need to call an international number to collect their prize. When calls are made to the number in the text message the people are billed a high amount (upto Rs 500 per minute). People are cautioned not to respond to such SMS’s”

We strongly recommends that those who receive messages on these alleged lotteries, prize draws or job offers do NOT open any documents attached to those messages, do NOT respond in any way to such messages received and hence do NOT give any personal information or bank details.

Here is one of the recent news on SMS lottery fraud unearthed by Mumbai Police.

India - Mumbai -SMS LOTTERY FRAUD

Two more fooled by Nigerian SMS scam, lose Rs 5L
V Narayan, TNN
25 May 2009

MUMBAI: The Powai police has been approached by two more victims of the infamous `Nigerian scam'. They received an SMS saying they had won a cash
prize and were asked to pay Rs 5 lakh each to claim it

According to the police, the victims reported that they received am SMS similar to the one that the income tax official, Ajaykumar Singh (38), had received last month. Based on Singh's complaint, Powai police had arrested one Marcus Bruno alias Chinedu Okuwzor, a Nigerian national, on May 18. Okuwzor had come to Mumbai from Delhi to collect another Rs 10 lakh from Singh for further processing of documents to claim the prize.

After the arrest of Okuwzor, the Powai police learnt about the involvement of four others, including a woman. "The arrested accused and the four wanted in the fraud are Nigerian nationals. Okuwzor claimed to be a marketing representative with the Nigerian high commission at New Delhi. He succeeded in getting Rs 5.6 lakh from Singh in four instalments on the pretext of processing documents and securing other clearances from the UK government. Senior inspector Rajdoot Rupwate said the victims hail from middle-class families and even took loans to pay Rs 5 lakh.

Rupwate said, "We are soon going to inform mobile service providers and warn them about the leakage of their customers' contact details. We found that the accused got the cellphone numbers through a direct sales agent (DSA) whom the accused paid a commission.''

Inspector Ashok Jadhav said with the help of IT experts they managed to crack Okuwzors mail ID and found detailed information about several people who might have fallen prey to the SMS. "At present, our focus is to nab the four other accused, who are believed to be in New Delhi, Jadhav said.


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