Fraudsters are finding new ways to siphon off public money — the latest trend being to give missed calls and lure subscribers by playing in recorded sex tapes.
Many subscribers fall prey to the new strategy as the fraudsters are fooling mobile users by playing such sex tapes.
During the last one year, the police received several complaints regarding such fraud calls.
According to Jayanath Jayanthan, SP Internal Security, it is hard to track these fraudsters as most of them are using online as a medium.
The mechanism is also expensive. The best way to stop this menace is to avoid making a return call to unknown numbers, he said.
Fraudsters are earning money by arranging revenue sharing facility with mobile phone service providers.
The fraud goes unchecked as the service providers close their eyes on such fraudsters. Many users ignore the loss of money, it is learnt.
The fraudsters are not only using sex tapes but also several recorded clips such as panic messages calling for help. Recordings of distress calls from women are also doing the rounds.
There are times when a tape plays a detailed story and most of the users would waste at least three or four minutes before switching off, a police source said.
A police probe had found that many calls were coming from foreign countries but the tapes were of Indian origin.