The Age.
www.theage.com.au
Jano Gibson
June 16, 2006 - 11:04AM
Answer the missed call? You've been sucked in to a missed call marketing campaign.
Seven young cyber-sleuths are trying to do what authorities have so far failed to achieve ?- shut down an international mobile phone spam scam that is affecting thousands of Australians each day.
A company linked to the scam claims it has access to "every single mobile phone user in [Australia]" after allegedly buying a massive database from a Cyprus company involved in porn and gambling websites and Australian-based nightclubs and DVD rental companies.
The Queensland-based cyber-sleuths, who call themselves the 4 Wise Monkeys
http://www.4wisemonkeys.com (there were originally four of them) and are aged between 17 and 21, say at least two of their websites have been attacked by unknown hackers since their campaign against so-called "missed-call marketing" began
How the scam works
The mobile phone spam scam, which has been running since November last year, involves "pranking" your mobile phone - in other words, hanging up before you have time to answer the phone.
A missed-call, with a mysterious Sydney- or Melbourne-based number, is then registered on your phone.
You can either ignore the missed call, or, if curiosity gets the better of you, call the number back.
If you do this, you get put through to "Simon" who, in a chirpy, pre-recorded message, says: "Did I just call you? Then it is your lucky day today as you're a winner and you're about to collect your personal mobile content gift with the value of at least $40. And that's not all. You might also win up to $10,000. Congratulations."
To collect your "gift", which includes a range of mobile phone ringtones ?- you have to ring a premium 190 number charged at a minimum $2.97 a minute.
The cost of the 190 call is disclosed by DC Marketing, as required by law, but it takes almost five minutes ?- or about $15 worth of call time - to get the special codes required to claim the free gift.
The Age
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace