i won 250,000 dirhams?! yeah, right!

A few minutes ago, I received a call on my personal mobile number. The man (not sure if he’s Pakistani or Indian) who called told me that he’s from Etisalat and that my number was entered into a raffle, and apparently I won Dhs250,000. He then told me to call him back so that he would give me the details on how I could claim my prize. Of course, I was skeptical. His number was an ordinary mobile number. But just for the heck of it, I called him back using our company landline phone. When the man answered, he said I should call him using my mobile number because “landline numbers are not allowed.” Ha! Right away, I put the phone down. He could have the Dhs250,000 for all I care!

I told my colleagues about this and they mentioned that they have also received similar calls before (although they’re not sure if it’s from the same person). I searched the internet and read that so many innocent people have been victims of similar scams, ending up losing a lot instead of winning. It’s a good thing I ended the call when I did and didn’t give away any personal details.

I already sent a message to our Corporate Account Manager in Etisalat to inform him about what happened; hopefully they’ll do something about this. Actually, it should be easy for them to do something (like disconnect the number, or have him pay a fine, or whatever) because no one can get a number without submitting a copy of their passport and visa. That is, unless the original owner left the country and just gave (or sold) the SIM to someone else...and that someone is misusing the number because he knows he can’t be traced.

Anyway, just in case you’re wondering, the number of the man who called me was 050-1455178. So people of UAE, please be careful.