Call from Etisalat saying I won 200 Thousand !!!!!!!

kperiwal · Jan 10, 2010

Hey Frens,

Strange thing - I got a call from a guy (from this number - 507064206) at bout 9:30 in the morning telling me he was calling from the Etisalat Head office and I had won a lottery of 200 thousand Dh. He wanted some details from me and asked me to call back on the same number.

I was a lil confused as to what he was saying (coz of his accent) and I thought it might have something to do with the More program that I had registered for a couple of days back.

So there - I returned the call and this guy tells me that I can give the details only in Hindi or Urdu and no English. I asked him his name and he gave me some name like Farikh or something. I then asked him what this whole thing was about. He told me I had won a lottery and if I wanted the money I needed to confirm some details. He told me he needed to confirm my Passport number or some pattaka number and give him the bank account number where I wanted the money to be deposited.

Something struck me as odd and I asked him if he could get some senior officer online and I could verify the same. He then tells me that I have only 45 mins within which i have to give them the entire details and stuff so they can process the same and transfer the money to the Bank before 11:00 am so he would get a senior online later.

It was strange. I asked him wht kind of details he wanted and also told him I didnt have a Bank Account so how would they hand over the money to me. He tells me they would arrange that. Once I give him the Passport number and state my name, I will have to go to a nearby shop and get an Etisalat recharge of 1000 Dh and give him tht number. Once he's confirmed that he would give me some reference number and cheque number that I should present to the Bank along with my Passport and the Bank would handover the cash to me.

I thought about it and told him that I would give him a call in 10 minuted after I acquire the recharge. The guy tells me I would be reimbursed the entire recharge amount and would also get free local and Intl calls for 6months but I should not disconnect the call. He told me he would be on line while I went and bought the recharge.

I had wanted to call the Etisalat customer by then and ask them about this Lottery business but I simply disconnected the call. I had read about Nigeria scams and this one looked and sounded quite similar. If this was legit the company would have a more formal and professional way of approaching the winner. Plus they wouldnt have the timing condition if this was a genuine Lottery.

Has anyone else had any such experience????? What do you guys think ???

kperiwal · Jan 10, 2010

I just made the call to the Etisalat guys to aomplain bout the matter. They confirmed it was a Hoax. They have noted the number I got the call from.

Presumably other people have been getting such calls too !!!

I hope everyone reads this post so no one falls prey to the scammers !!

Arabudupi · Jan 10, 2010

I'm glad you didnt believe him Khushboo... I have heard smiliar stories happening and later turned out to be hoax. Good that you acted wisely.

nandinibabu · Jan 10, 2010

Hi kushboo,

thats so nice to hear, you have handled the situation very cleverly..and also i heard, that we should not attend if there is any phone call from pakistan(sorry idon't know the exact code for pak)..please carefully check before going to attend any international calls..that too they will call you in the late night, so that they can easily cheat you..because we all will forget what we are doing in that time:rotfl...Girlsssssssss becarefull!!!..

i think i also recieved one message saying that i have won some euro( idon't know the exact amt,hehehe:crazy) fromUK and also they asked me to reply them back if iam ready to take the cheque..but i didn't do any response to that, since my dh also told it ws a hoax message..

natpudan · Jan 10, 2010

this scam has been there for some time.

i remember once an article came in gulf news months back about this scam.

one pakistani person who had been working in abu dhabi for over 20 years or more, got injured during work and was forced not to work anymore.

he got a settlement of 60 or 70,000 dirhams.

a similar call came, the person believed & recharged on & on and entirely lost all his money.

he could no more work because of the injury & lost all his money in this scam.

a few charity organizations helped him to go back i believe.

mau24 · Jan 10, 2010

HI all,
I know some one who had the same experience.That fellow acted smartly & complained it 2 etisalat office.So everybody be carefull if u receive such call.

ambs · Jan 11, 2010

Hi

even i am getting so many emails same like this..that u have won the lottery ....thay are asking same bank number

its good that u understand the scandal of them

3ACES · Jan 17, 2010

Good Job KP, All the details mentioned by you only point towards an attempted fraud and you have done the rightful thing by not biting their bait as well as reporting the same to Etisalat.

Incidentally the gang has been arrested from Sharjah now. The news appeared in today's Gulfnews

gulfnews : Gang arrested in Sharjah over Dh300,000 mobile phone text message scam

vimala1957 · Jan 17, 2010

you did a wise thing. yea, one must never be taken away by the temptations offered.
Not phones but received emails quite a few times telling that the person has got millions of dollars inherited from a deceased person and that he does not know how to invest so would like to get into partnership and all such inceredible things.
anyways, good you did not get into trouble.