India bans bulk SMS, but will Pak stop prank calls?

Bangalore, India: After it emerged that most of the threatening mobile phone text messages and website images that spread panic among migrants from cities in the south and west of India last week originated in Pakistan, Indian government has banned bulk mobile phone message for 15 days from August 17, 2012.

A ministry official said all SMSes and MMSes on cellphones would be banned and no cellphone user could send a message to more than five people at a time.

Over 30,000 students and workers from the northeast fled Mumbai, Bangalore and other cities, fearing retaliation for recent violence against Muslims in Assam.

The false rumours of Muslim revenge attacks were fuelled by threats posted on social media websites and spread through text messages. Migrants were also alarmed by misleading images that purported to show victims of mass killings. Clashes between indigenous people in Assam and Muslim settlers from neighbouring Bangladesh have killed 75 people and displaced more than 400,000.

"After checking and verifying we are saying, with responsibility, that the bulk of SMSes (text messages) spreading rumours about the northeast region have come from Pakistan," an interior ministry spokesman said, declining to be named for security reasons.

Banning bulk SMSes is just one way of keeping the anti-Indian forces in Pakistan trying to foment violence in India. Perhaps the threat SMSes that created panic among the natives of the North East living in southern states wasn't the first attempt by Pakistan. Scamsters from Pakistan have been calling Indians to trick them into revealing their e-mail passwords or bank account numbers.

Indian service providers have been warning people against calls from numbers starting with +92 (Pakistan's country code).

The Airtel warns: "Do not respond to any unexpected calls from a number with the +92 or +375 country code."

The caller might tell you that you have won a lottery and even go to the extent of tricking you by citing the cheque number.

A CIOL reader Aquil Iqbal Burney says: “I had a missed call from +923340745302 and when I called back they told me that I'd won an amount of 10 lakhs and the guy gave me Lottery number as 065131 and the cheque number as 465001 and was telling me to call on a number 00923478869110. I took all the information for the sake of lodging a complaint.”

Also, Jyoti Gupta wrote on CIOL website: “Hi All, I am a Vodafone subscriber and I got a missed call from +92 3414801276. I called on that number and there was some ringtone in URDU, a man picked up the phone stating that he is from Vodafone and I have won 25 lakh rupees which i need to collect from their Bandra office he gave me a number to call as well which i did not note. It is very risky to dial such numbers.”

Some of the numbers, which are allegedly being used in this fraud are +923044433686, +923007355415, +923414801276, +923423128685, +923417992778, +923026393127, +923027471183, etc.

(With inputs from Reuters)