I recently recieved a missed call on my mobile phone (iMate SP3i) from 0395405101 or (03) 9540 5101. As I had recently started a new job interstate, I returned this unexpected phone call and recieved an automated answering service that started off explining that this was run by some Marketing or Market Research company and that I had won a prize $40 or greater, I hung up at this point (26 seconds).
Tonight (24-48 hours after the initial call) I spoke to several other people about this phone call and of the 4 people having dinner (Tudo Vietnameese in Canberra, VERY nice for reference) and all of them had also recieved missed calls from this number (none had called it back) three were able to verify via the call logs that this was the exact same number we came to the conclusion that this was likely a scam – designed to get you to accept a premium rate line call (via press a number to continue this call and accept phone charges) or a method to get you to release your personal information (address to send prize too, confirm name and birthday etal).
My advice is that if you have a missed call from this number and you google it before returning it, that you do not call it, I believe that you risk much more than you may gain. If you did call this number and went beyond my meagre 26 seconds, please create an account and leave a message, I would really be interested what happens beyond the initial greeting message.
M
Edit (18 June 2006)
An updated number range is as follows
- 02 8219 0500
- 02 8303 8320
- 03 8102 9565
- 03 8558 0556
- 03 8558 1441
- 03 8558 1442
- 03 8558 1443
- 03 8558 1444
- 03 8558 1445
- 03 8558 1446
- 03 8558 1447
- 03 9540 2950
- 03 9540 5101
- 03 9540 5189
- 03 9645 2474
There is an email running around with the text “Apparently it’s all part of a massive scam where they ring you up and hang up straight away, then when you ring back they promise you a prize and try to keep you on the line at $2.50/min by feeding you information about this wonderfull prize.” which while close is not accurate. You will only be billed at the standard phone call rate for numbers in the range/area (ie: STD rates are the maximum you face), the goal of the “missed/prank” call is to get you to listen to the entire message and THEN call the premium rate number given in the message, as long as you don’t call the 1902 number you should be allright.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.