I don't know what it is with people trying to con others into giving away their details to them - does anybody ever actually fall for it? It's really common with email, people warning you that you need to log in to your account for banks or services you probably don't even use. Phishing scams suck, we've all seen such emails. One thing I had never seen until today though was the same thing happening on mobile phones. Working away at some coding, my phone buzzes with the following SMS message:
Orange customer. You may now claim your FREE CAMERA PHONE upgrade for your loyalty. Call now on 0207 153 9153. Offer ends 7th July.T&C's apply. Opt-out available. Sender:UpgrdCentre
Now two things in specific triggered my suspicion:
- I'm a Pay-as-you-go customer, free upgrades just don't happen on this service. You always pay more than what you would on contract as the phone companies don't make as much out of you on this plan.
- The closing date was the following day. Orange usually give customers about a week for special deals.
So, I went ahead and Google'd the phone number and sure enough every description on the first page of results said it was a scam. Once again the spammers attempts at getting personal details and/or money has been foiled. Maybe they should try watching Hustle, they might be a little more sucessful then.
glad I'm not the only one