Condition India’s largest telecom company, Reliance Jio, has issued an advisory. It was said that a paid services scam was taking place in the name of Reliance Jio.
In this scam, cybercriminals make missed calls from international numbers. When someone calls back to these numbers, they have to pay additional charges. Therefore, users should be vigilant and careful while identifying such frauds.
So today in needs news we will talk about what is premium rate service scam? You will also learn that-
How do scammers carry out this scam? What to do to avoid this scam?
Expert: Rahul Mishra, Cyber Security Advisor, Uttar Pradesh Police
Question: What is a premium rate service?
Answer: Premium Rate Service (PRS) is a service provided by telecommunications companies to certain specific telephone numbers. Users have to pay additional fees to call or send messages on these numbers. These charges are several times higher than those for a normal call or message.
Part of the price of these calls goes to the SIM operator and the other part goes to the account of the recipient of the call.
Usually, services such as weather information, horoscope or technical support are provided on these numbers. Apart from this, this service is also used for entertainment, pranks and adult chats.
Question: What is the premium rate service scam?
Answer – In a paid service scam, users receive calls from unknown international numbers. This call is so short that it is disconnected before the user even answers the call. When the user calls back on this number, they must pay a premium service charge. More than Rs 100 are charged per minute to call on this service.
Question: How do I identify a premium rate service scam?
Answer – If you receive a missed call on your mobile from an unknown international number, this number may be connected to the premium rate service.
Often, scammers use country codes for such calls, which you are not even aware of.
Apart from that, most of these calls come late at night. Many people call back when they receive a missed call from an unknown number at night. For this reason, they fall into the trap of scammers.
There are several ways to identify a paid service scam. Understand this from the graph below-
Question: How can I avoid premium rate service scams?
Answer: To avoid this scam, it is very important to identify the fraudulent phone number. In any calling number, first there is the + sign, then the country code is written. For example, the code for India is +91. While the American code is +1 and Pakistan’s is +92.
If you receive a suspicious call with a country code from a country other than India, be vigilant. These calls may come from cyber crooks.
Some methods are mentioned in the graphic below, by adopting them you can avoid scams related to paid services.
Question: What should you do if you are the victim of a paid services scam?
Answer – If you are a victim of this scam, first file a complaint on the customer care number of your SIM operator company. After that, also give written information about this to the local police and cybercrime. Apart from this, to prevent such scam calls from coming again, block this number immediately.
Question: Is there a special recharge required for the premium rate service?
Answer – Usage of paid service is available for both prepaid and postpaid users. When you use a paid service, i.e. international calls or a special SMS service from your mobile number, additional fees are charged for this. Only after this can you call these numbers.
Users with postpaid numbers are more likely to fall prey to premium rate scams as they do not need to recharge more for such calls. They know it when their cell phone bill arrives each month.
Question: How do cyber crooks take advantage of the premium rate service scam?
Answer – Cyber crooks promote this service in a false way. When a person falls victim to this scam, part of the fees are transferred to their account. Apart from this, scammers activate unwanted subscription services like ringtones, games or fake alerts during these calls. Through this, the money is also transferred to their account.
Question- What to do if such a service has been activated on your mobile?
Answer – If any type of service has started on your phone number, immediately stop that service by calling your SIM operator’s customer care number. So this money will no longer be deducted from your account in the future.
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