BEWARE OF 'YOU HAVE WON A FREE GIFT'

By Zulkiple Ibrahim

KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 (Bernama) -- Do you remember the ‘scratch-and-win’
ploy used by unscrupulous businesses to hoodwink members of the public to buy
certain products they do not really need?

The same ploy has since 'resurfaced', but this time it uses short messaging
service (sms).

Recently when on his way to work, a medical practitioner who wished to be
known as Dr Krishnan, received an sms reading "Congratulations, you have won a
free gift. To redeem please sms this number.....".

Eager to find what the gift was, Dr Krishnan replied to the 5-digit number
and seconds later he received an sms telling him that he had subscribed to a
certain service.

"To my dismay, the sms came with a RM4 deduction of my prepaid credit. Just
imagine, for only one sms that the company sent, it cost me RM4. What happens
when the sms keeps coming for a service that I don’t really need?

"And to my disgust, I need to stop the service by replying to .... (another
5-digit number) and this cost me another RM1.

"In all, I lost RM5 due to my eagerness to know what the free gift was. I’m
sure I’m not the only one who fell for this (ploy). Just imagine if 100 cellular
phone users had fallen for this trick, then the company stands to gain RM500 in
only a matter of minutes", he said, adding that there are hundreds of thousands
of cell phone users in the country.


IN GOOD FAITH

Businessman S. Muthu also fell for the same ploy.

"Out of the blue, I received an sms congratulating me for receiving a free
gift. Of course, I wanted to know what the free gift was and I replied to the
message.

"If I knew it was for a service that I did not need, I would have ignored
the earlier sms", said Muthu.

Consumer and social activist Gurmukh Singh said only prepaid cell phone
users received such sms messages.

"Almost everybody who received such an sms would reply in good faith", noted
Muthu.

LEGALLY RIGHT

He said it is legal if the parties involved offer mobile phone users their
services, and the public has the option to say yes or no to the offer.

"But the free gift is good bait, something which members of the public could
not resist", said Gurmukh.

He said in order to know what they would be given as a gift, those who
received the sms would waste no time replying, only to discover later that they
had been tricked to subscribe to services they did not need.

"Some of the services offered include items available for sale or offers for
trips. But this does not come free. In actual fact, consumers do not need such
services, as they could find them via other ways which are free. "To make
matters worse, cellular phone users have to pay a heavy price for this sms", he
said.

Those using prepaid plans would find their credit amount drops drastically
after being ‘tricked’ into subscribing to these ‘unwarranted’ services.


WHY NOT REPORT THE MATTER

Gurmukh said only those subscribing to prepaid plans usually fall prey to
this scam.

"These unscrupulous parties usually prey on the prepaid users because they
could straight away deduct the charges. These parties usually stay away from
those using postpaid lines," he said.

Why not report the incident to the authorities?

Gurmukh noted, "Those who fell prey to this scam should report the matter to
the authorities. However, in most cases they would keep quiet over the matter.

"The victims would regard that they lost RM5 (RM4 for receiving one SMS
informing them that the person had subscribed to a service and another RM1 for
terminating that service).

"Usually the victims were tricked only once. Realising they had been tricked
(after receiving the RM4 sms they would normally terminate their service at the
cost of another RM1). That is the end of the story and they would never be
tricked again".

Gurmukh warns, "Consumers should ignore sms messages that offers them free
gifts. There are many ploys using the sms to fleece consumers. Some would try to
get your bank account number, while some would resort to other tricks.

"Nobody actually wants to give you something free as gifts unless there is
some motive behind it".