How indeed do con
artists get hold of our names and phone numbers as a writer
asks. Fortunately for the writer, her experience as a journalist came
in handy as a sixth sense told her that the call was not what it
purported to be, and she just hung up. A lawyer in Sabah was not so
lucky and lost RM3.2 million in an almost similar scam. The Deputy
Information, Communications and Culture Minister stressed that there
was no truth in allegations that telephone service providers sold or
provided their clients' numbers to others. Many numbers, he said were
“harvested randomly”.
I guess all of us should
be pleased that whenever we get calls either from con artists with
their ever fascinating variety of scams or the telemarketers, that we
are the chosen ones. A call from a stranger should alert us on the
possibility that something is amiss and it might not be genuine. Each
person who has had the experience of receiving cold calls from the
marketing personnel of numerous companies must be wondering, why was
I the selected from among the millions of others in the country.
The information we give
when applying for any service from the banks or other merchants is a
treasure trove of data. The application forms would usually be a
page or two with blanks requesting our identity card number,
telephone number and address plus other questions that can pinpoint
our preferences for certain products or services. Anyone getting hold
of the telephone number and the other details in that form would be
able to construct our personality profile and decide how best to
approach us.
Then we'll get those calls
and of course it was harvested randomly.
Image from javametropolis
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