Mobile users in the United Kingdom have been put on alert. A scam is doing the rounds. Text messages are being broadcast to thousands of mobiles stating they should ring a phone number urgently. Hapless mobile owners who keep calling the number are greeted by an engaged signal.
This is one of the oldest scams in the book. The number is an 0900 premium-rate number charged at a high rate. Revenue from the calls is shared with the content provider-in this case the provider of the “engaged tone.” For the number is never engaged. Callers are simply connected with a recording of an engaged tone, paying more than a dollar per minute for the privilege.
Premium-rate services on fixed networks have been operating for more than a decade. They are essentially concerned with the provision of content. Users pay a higher than normal rate for the calls. Network operators collect the money, keep a proportion to cover connection costs, and pass the rest to the content provider.
It is an easy and effective billing mechanism to supply content-based services. It is also open to a variety of scams. It is a good example of what might happen in the future mobile environment with its focus on content delivery.
Not only will mobile users become subject to a growing variety of scams that could easily be avoided, but the industry itself is liable to fall foul of hastily imposed content regulation attempting to control such scams. This is not just unfortunate; it could well be fatal.
So far, the mobile industry has been immune from the most common scams. This is not due to prescient behavior on the part of the industry. It is due simply to the fact that mobile users pay their own bills. Most of the scams in the fixed-line premium rate environment rely on the fact that the caller from a fixed-line phone is not usually the one who pays the bill. Children are favorite targets-chat services made huge profits from kids before being banned in most markets. A foretaste of the future of short message service (SMS).
Some scams can be breathtakingly simple. An enterprising guy in the United States set up a 900 number charged at US$50 a call. Unlike most markets, the United States did not impose low maximum charges for such numbers, believing in the spirit of free enterprise and the effectiveness of market forces. There was no service on this guy’s number. No need, for he was the only one who called it.
He appeared in office buildings dressed as a delivery man with flowers for Miss X. Miss X did not exist at that location. Obviously a mistake by the dispatcher at headquarters; a quick phone call would sort it out. The phone call confirmed the mistake-wrong office. Off to the next floor, US$50 richer. All in a couple of minutes.
The Moldova scam was far from simple. Visitors to a soft porn Web site were invited to open “the green door,” behind which were untold riches. Opening the door required software to be downloaded to provide the key. Down comes the software, disconnecting the Internet service provider (ISP) connection and redialing to a Moldova number. At international call rates of course. The user was unaware of this; the software had turned off the sound and made dialog boxes display with the background color, hiding all evidence of modem activity. From then on, Internet access remained at international call rates of more than US$5 per minute.
Global Wireless is moving to the Internet. This is the last “what you see is what you get” print issue. You can access us through your local ISP. We will not switch you to Moldova. Honest.
