New phone scam?

[bluesofa]

I read this morning in the UK press about a number of people who have been charged up to 300UKP even though they didn't answer the call. It said the victim usually saw a missed call from a UK 0845 or 0853 number.

The report went on to say the phone companies are not yet aware how this scam works, even though they are apparently refunding the “call charge” made to the user's account.

Does anyone have any more detailed information about this, or if it has arrived in Thailand yet?

[Chicog]

From what I've read so far it involves hacking the users mobile account, so I'm not sure there is anything you can do if your providers systems have been breached.

Which is why they are so keen to refund everyone and keep it quiet.

[bluesofa]

From what I've read so far it involves hacking the users mobile account, so I'm not sure there is anything you can do if your providers systems have been breached.

Which is why they are so keen to refund everyone and keep it quiet.

So if this is the case, I take it that it's a hack into the Service Provider's system, rather cloning or imitating your mobile credentials - as was done on the old analogue systems a couple of decades back?

What I'm getting at, is that there's nothing we can do as a user to make sure nothing goes amiss? I'm referring specifically to Thailand now.

If it happens here, I can see an awful hoo-hah about trying to get a refund of illegitimate charges.