Khabar Angin - Siapa Menipu? Siapa Ditipu?

Aku rasa malas betul nak menulis sejak kebelakangan ini. Aku lebih banyak menghabiskan masa dengan membaca. Peliknya, walaupun dah sebulan lebih aku baca satu buku ni tapi tak habis-habis lagi. Mana nak habis ... setiap kali aku baca, aku ngantuk ... alahaiii ..!!

Kali ini, aku nak kongsi satu message yang baru aku terima dari seorang rakan melalui Whatsapp. Begini messagenya :

Ini whatsapp dari En Zainal. Mesej dari Ketua Trafik Kota (kota mana, aku tak tahu).

Hati-hati. Ada orang yang menerima panggilan dari +375602605281, +37127913091 atau sebarang nombor yang bermula dengan +375 atau +371 atau +081. Hanya satu deringan dan terus putus dengan meninggalkan pesanan "missed call". Jika anda membuat panggilan semula ke nombor tersebut, anda akan dicas sebanyak $15 - $30 dan semua senarai contact akan disalin dalam masa 3 saat. Jika anda mempunyai maklumat akaun bank dalam telefon pintar anda, mereka boleh menyalinnya. Kod +375 dari Belarus dan kod +371 dari Latvia. Jangan jawab atau panggil balik nombor-nombor tersebut. Tolong hantar dan kongsi maklumat ini dengan rakan dan keluarga anda. Info dari commercial crime.

Aku tak pasti samada betul atau tidak maklumat di atas. Mungkinkah ianya ada kaitan dengan artikel aku sebelum ini tentang kes penipuan 1MalaysiaVoucher.com? Macam-macam kaedah yang boleh dilakukan untuk mengambil wang orang lain dengan cara "rela terpaksa" sebegini. Tak mustahil mereka boleh melakukan hal yang sama dengan pendekatan yang berbeza, kan? Okey, jom kita siasat ...

Aku google dan dapati banyak rupanya artikel tentang penipuan ini. Aku "cut & paste" salah satu artikel dari Hoax or Fact seperti di bawah :

IMPORTANT - missed calls

It is a fact that from the past few days, many subscribers have been receiving missed calls from unknown international numbers, especially starting with an international code of +375. The above warning messages started spreading right after couple of these incidents. The above warning has been mostly circulating around BlackBerry Messenger, WhatsApp and Facebook, creating panic among mobile users. The story also claims that one you can be charges up to $15-30 per minute, and may even copy your bank account and credit card details from your phone. The story also mentions Ajish Nair who is believed to have lost 35 lacks from his bank account as a result of this call. However, most of these are hoax messages. This story is reported in Mid-Day.

Vishal Bhatt, an employee from a leading media company who fell victim to this call said, “I got a call on Saturday and on Tuesday. I then verified that the number belonged to Belarus. When I spoke to Vodafone about the call, they confirmed it was a faulty call. They also told me that it was Rs 15 that had been deducted when I tried returning the call and not $15 as per the warning message.”

Explaining this call phenomenon, Vijay Mukhi, an IT expert said, “It is impossible to copy someone’s contacts and bank details from a phone, without hacking into it. It is an old scam under the Priority Payment Number a computer program dials as many series of numbers as possible. There is one ring for giving a missed call. We believe it to be an international number and call back following which the service provider charges the caller for making an international call. The money thus charged is then paid to the company owning the number by the service provider. A portion of this money is then paid to the scammer by the company. So, the only advice is to never call back.”

Note that scam calls and messages from international numbers starting from +375 and +92 have been reported earlier. They claimed that the mobile user has won big amounts like 550,000 pounds in some promo lottery, asking to send name & address of the winner to a particular email. That scam was intended only to trick users, get their personal details and cheat financially. So, it is quite clear that suspicious calls from international numbers starting with +375 and +92 are from scammers, and must not be responded.

This phenomenon of missed calls from suspicious numbers has become common in India, from the past January. Many Vodafone subscribers, especially in Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Uttar Pradesh have complained about dubious missed calls from ISD numbers, like +22455xxxxx. People who tried to call back on these numbers were infact charged a whopping Rs.45 per minute. Airtel users too have complained about receiving missed calls from numbers starting with +92. Even some BSNL subscribers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have received calls from ISD numbers starting with +263xxxx and +960xxxxx, and were charged Rs.50 per minute for calling back. This is a missed call technique used by scammers to trick users and get financial benefit from the mobile companies. Most of these dubious ISD calls will be from premium numbers, which are charged high when called back. Vodafone, Airtel and BSNL have infact issued a warning about it on their official websites.

Therefore, if you get international calls or messages from suspicious numbers like +375xxxx and +92xxxxx, discard the calls and do not respond to their messages. And the part of the story saying, copying your bank account and credit card details from your phone by a simple phone call is nothing but an exaggerated hoax.

Amacam ... puas hati ke? Siapa yang menipu, siapa yang kena tipu sebenarnya? Orang yang menyebarkan berita itu pun sama saja penipunya! Terlalu banyak khabar angin yang kita terima dan tanpa usul periksa, kita sebarkan pula pada orang lain. Dengan berbagai jenis rangkaian media sosial yang ada sekarang ini membolehkan sebarang bentuk berita disebarkan dengan begitu pantas dan mudah ... semuanya di hujung jari anda ...!!

OK, berbalik pada cerita di atas, walaupun ini cuma khabar angin yang disebarkan, aku berharap agar pembaca semua lebih berhati-hati. Jangan pula kita menjadi salah seorang mangsa mereka. Kes-kes kecurian wang menerusi kredit panggilan seperti ini telah banyak kali berlaku, samada kita sedari atau tidak. Nasihat aku, apabila menerima panggilan dari nombor yang agak meragukan, janganlah dijawab dan jangan pula cuba untuk menelefon semula. Dan setiap kali aku terima panggilan dari "NO CALLER ID" memang aku tak kan jawab, walaupun mungkin dari orang yang aku kenali sebab kalau nak bercakap dengan aku, tak payahlah nak blok-blok nombor sendiri. Aku pun harus diberi hak untuk tahu dengan siapa aku bercakap, kan ..??