Fraudsters befool mobile subscribers in the name of BISP

LAHORE: Mobile phone subscribers continue to receive the text messages that impersonate government social safety net Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) to rip them off, The News learnt on Friday.
Such message senders seem to send SMS (short message service) in bulk to a number of subscribers, stating that a receiver is awarded such and such amount from the BISP as the recipient number is registered with the BISP.
In Urdu, a typical message reads: “Benazir income support ki taraf se apko Rs25,200 milain hain…apka ye number 0321-4016140 BISP mein register tha. Ap is number [0336-1179481] per call karien”.
A witness said the text came from 0348-6354252 and a number from other cellular operator was mentioned in the text body.
It is observed that the sending number SIM (subscriber identity module) gets nonresponsive, while the other number remains operational for a couple of days.
A person, who called the number, was told to transfer some money through a mobile financial service to receive the BISP stipend.
BISP, launched in July 2008, aims at providing cash transfers of Rs1,500/month to underprivileged people to add to their income.
The fraudsters seem undeterred in deceiving people as they have been using the same cheating ploys for years.
The spokesperson at the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said the authority is well cognizant with the consumers’ grievances and taking number of steps to resolve their issues.
“In July 2015, 1,508 mobile subscriptions were reported to PTA from BISP, involved in BISP frauds, which were blocked by the respective operators on the PTA direction,” the spokesperson said.
He said it was decided in a meeting held on 16 April, 2015 at the BISP secretariat that mobile subscriptions involved in fraudulent activity would be blocked.
Notably, the telecom industry has so far spent more than five billion rupees in deploying biometric SIM verification (BVS) to have identity records of the subscribers. The industry has also spent Rs140 million on BVS awareness campaign.
The new SIMs sales by the cellular mobile operators remained suspended for the three months (mid-January to mid-April) during the BVS operation.
Secretary General Information Communication and Technology Think Tank Mudassar Jehangir said it is very unfortunate that scammers are still able to befool and deceive innocent people while making a mockery of biometric SIM verification system.
“Though PTA has a specific online form to address the consumer complaint no considerable punishment has been awarded to anyone as yet,” Jehangir said.
“In fact, the affected consumers never get response from the authority even after months.”
He said lack of action from the authority has encouraged the mafia, which works in connivance with the officials working at cellular companies.
The PTA official said the authority has revamped its complaint handling mechanism for mobile companies, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited and other telecom operators.
He added that a subscriber could file a complaint with the relevant operator and if the complaint is not addresses s/he could call the PTA call centre, which is working under the consumer protection directorate to take appropriate action as per the regulations.
Jehangir advised the PTA to set up a system to give exemplary punishments to people after thorough investigation so that no one could ever use the communication services for illegal activities.
He further said CNIC (computerised national identity card) found in such scams should be blacklisted and no new SIM should be issued against such a CNIC for at least one year. He added that the punishments should be publicised through media.