The internet scamming trend is phenomenon in PNG whereby innocent and uninformed citizens are victimized. Rather the internet scamming trend is rife now with the access to internet by anyone with a smartphone. Hence, anyone can be scammed into or lied by anyone over the internet with the combination of advancing technology.
The rapid changes in the internet technology is happening without any form of awareness towards the users in PNG about the problems and consequences. This is my personal effort to make the communities and people in PNG aware of the existence of internet scammers. It is rampant in some parts of African countries but now the idea has spread all over the globe and PNG is not exception to having internet scammer.
At some stage, the PNG scammers using the technology and internet platforms are sending random Congratulatory messages to mobile phone users about their phone numbers randomly selected for certain promotions and to claim the prices, the recipient have to email/call/text the sender immediately.
There are phone numbers and email addresses provided in the message which are not related to the organization they refer to in their message.
Without having the courtesy to check for facts and other relevant details, some people have gone so wild after receiving the messages and made direct contact with the senders of the messages immediately. The senders of the messages were actually scams. They would advice you to pay some certain fees before collecting your price. That does not happen anywhere in the world where a promotional winner is allowed to pay any certain fees.
Regardless of how it works with promotional winning claims, the unaware victims are paying the amount through either Post Office (SMK) or doing direct bank deposits and Western Union transfer. The winner expects the price redemption to be expedited soon towards his possession sooner after the first payment.
However, the agent (scam) intentional delays with several fees more fees requested or at times switches off their phones to keep the victims under suspense. When the victims tries to contact the companies where the price originates from; they receive surprising responses with nonexistence of such promotions in their companies.
It happened to my sister one time in Mt. Hagen in 2012. I accompanied her to the town and she drove directly to the Digicel Shop and bought a K50.00 Flex Card. She entered the numbers quickly and send it off to someone whom I do not know and she do not know as well. Then she called up the recipient and said, ''I already sent you the K50.00 Flex Card and I'm at the Digicel Office in Mt. Hagen, can I pickup my price here''.
I heard her talking and when she finished, I asked her, 'who was that; 'she said, the Digicel agent send me the congratulatory messages to my phone that I won K50 000.00 from the randomly selected numbers from Digicel Promotion. I was asked to collect the cheque in the office. To do that; the agents needed K50.00 Flex Card.
I explained to her the existence of the scams in PNG and she should not have to give in easily like that, she should have checked for the details properly to see if such promotions have been advertised by Digicel PNG.
To be honest, the rapid changes in the internet and having access on the smartphones is having a catastrophic impact in the lives of the people in PNG. It seems like, anyone can believe anything on the internet and believe into it without have any due consideration of the sources. There are news or promotional driven messages on the internet and mobile phone messages have scammers behind it.
The scamming trend has gone from email to Facebook Inbox and then onto Whatsapp and IMO messenger and text messages. The scammers are really smart and can play around with people that will tend to know nothing of the existence of scam to ensure you are scammed.
Many vulnerable people have lost their money in the process of receiving a promised Fortune, a Treasure Box , Million Dollars Transfer or to claim a Won Promotion on their phones.
It is better to think that none of such like treasure box, million dollars transfer and uninformed promotional winning do exists in the world and it is ; purely work of the internet scammers.
In whatever ways the messages were sent to you, it is for the best interest of yourself to;
i. Confirm the sources of the messages or promotion to be 100% true and relevant
ii. To know their office location and get their specific details to confirm with other people
iii. Do not be too quick to pay any fees anytime soon event if requested persistently
The screenshot messages below are shared to me by Lorraine in Lae after viewing my first story I did to create awareness on the existence of the scam in PNG.
It is terrifying for me to see the laws and requirements being mentioned and described by the scammer to Lorraine. Such laws and rules does not exists in PNG and a logical thinking would have prevented her from depositing or paying the second fees again.
I was told that, their (scammer's) phone is off on the voicemail but so active on Whatsapp and IMO. It is assumed that, the scammers have diverted the voice-calls to voicemail intentionally and active on Apps which is appears to me as a smart idea.
The screenshots of the message to Lorraine from the scammers based in Port Moresby by the name of Cassandra Wakia and some of her/his colleagues who are into this scam business.
This scam case has been reported to Lae Police Station and it is now a police case to investigate and bring these kind of people to face law and learn their lesson.
Please be vigilant and do not give into such scam messages too quickly. Use your #SmartBrains and not #Smartphones.
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| This is uncommon in the logistical operations |
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| Payment was deposited into the nominated BSP Account with details |
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| Clearly scammed into more money |
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| Samples of scammed packages |
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