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Walking to her hostel back from work, Priya (not real name) received a call on her mobile. She loathed to take it up, and 
silenced her mobile. By the time she went to bed, she had already received 50 missed calls, from one number! Burdened with an ever-increasing workload, it is a new hassle she is learning to deal with.
Priya is not alone. Like Priya, many girls in Technopark are now at having a new problem. There has been a spate of unwanted calls from strangers. The first time, the caller mentions the name and the employer details of the girls. Naturally, the girls think it is from someone known to them. It is only when the calls turns suggestive that they come to know something is amiss. They immediately hang up, but the psychopaths have had their taste of blood. And continues the pestering.
What has raised eyebrows is the fact that quite a lot of girls working in Technopark are getting the calls, and that too from a specific set of numbers. Many of them believe that it has been leaked from the mobile operators themselves, since otherwise it is impossible for such specific targeting. Most mobile operators provide corporate connections to employees working in Technopark, and to provide these, they ask for personal details including photographs and ID Card copies. If this is being leaked from the mobile operator’s offices, it is indeed a serious breach of trust. The personal information falling into the wrong hands can have disastrous effects on the personal lives of the person. Mobile operators have always maintained that they have been taking steps to prevent such instances, but the latest series of incidents show that they have been lethargic in implementing them.
TechnoparkToday has information of the numbers used to make the calls. We are hereby releasing to the public the last 4 digits of the numbers – 5291, 9231, 6619, 7289, 2041, 4109 and many others.. we have a list of numbers which is reported by the harassed female employees, and we will handover to the authorities, if there is a request to do so.
So what can be done against this? The usual step is to register a complaint with the local police station (the cyber crime cell does not allow case registration. They only take up cases forwarded by local police). A better idea for women in Technopark would be to take this up with their companies’ women’s cell (This is mandatory in all companies now). They can forward it through Technopark to the police. Such a combined effort would force the police to take this up seriously and quickly. And believe us, once cajoled, the police does act decidedly on such anti-socials on all complaints they receive.
The mobile operators should also take up more responsibility in ensuring the privacy of their customers. The onus is on them to prevent such a blatant misuse of personal information.
Readers, requesting all of you to share similar experiences or opinions as comments below.
Here are a few things that can be done to avoid trouble.
– Some mobiles have a number screening facility. Add the no to the screened nos list and then the calls will be ignored. Phone will not ring and the msgs will be forwarded to a trash folder which can be bulk deleted. I was surprised to find that while entry level models of Nokia have this feature, more expensive models do not have them.
– Vodafone has a call filtering facility at Rs 99 pm. They allow to black list nos at the provider itself. There is also a white list for more paranoid times which when activated will block all nos except the white listed ones.
– Do not recharge mobiles at local stores. Use online recharging option.
– While giving phone for servicing or repairing make sure that there is no personal information in phone memory or in any add on cards.
Hope this helps 🙂
It seems that numbers are leaking from the mobile operator offices. The employees can see the mobile number and other information about the account including name,age,profession,address etc..they can easily export the details in to an excel sheet and handover their friends.
Once these numbers reach the hands of antisocial elements, just imagine the after effects! In which basis people can take connection? more over that people are giving the identity proofs like passport copy,licence copy or election id card and that can also be misused. This is a very serious issue and we have to be extra careful about it.
Nuisance on mobile comes under Cyber Crime and many are not aware of that. Just give a complaint at the Cyber Police Station in Pattom or one can email them ([email protected]) and the rest will be taken care of.
Remember, do not change the SIM or keep the mobile off just because you are getting prank calls. Note down the number and register a complaint. Changing the sim will erase the call log from the phone.
You can also SMS HELP to 94979 00000 (Police Helpline)
many of my friends having such experience. the callers knows name, age and even the company we are working. we used to switch off the phone or change the number if it became a burden. but surprisingly after a few weeks some calls will come again. that’s why we are suspecting the agents/phone agencies are giving numbers to these anti socials.
thanks for this report. this is a real eye opener. many girls will ready to complain about this from now onwards.
Same thing happened to me also, some 2 years back.
I have reported this to Kazhakkoottam Police station with the phone number. Happy that they took immediate actions and the issue got resolved.
Ladies,
another solution could be to get your brothers/male friends to take SIM cards for you.
and please make sure your friends dont fall for this stuff.
What makes a phone call harassing?
How often do I have to get these calls to make it harassment?
Who should I contact when I get harassing calls?
What can my local phone company do if I am receiving harassing calls?
Is the phone company always able to solve harassing phone call problems?
What can I do to stop harassing calls without going to the phone company or police?
What is the “pressure valve” strategy?
What precautions can I take to prevent harassment?
How can I stop telemarketing calls?
Kerala Police have now launched a new scheme by name “Kerala Police Message Centre “for the general public to reach police by SMS. It is intended to prevent crimes, terrorist acts rendering of immediate assistance on receipt of information regarding traffic problems, accidents, harassment by antisocial elements etc. through SMS by any one on the spot to the SMS No 94979 00000.
The general guidelines to be followed by the citizens are given below
* Messages should be brief and indicate place of occurrence and send to 94979 00000.
SMS should be preferably sent in the following situations:
* When life and properties are under immediate threat.
* When you are a witness to or affected by a crime or accident and there are no policemen nearby.
* When you see suspicious persons or objects in and around any place which would suspected to endanger to life and property (terror) is anticipated.
* When someone seek protection from any antisocial elements.
* When you come across a criminal who is wanted by the police
* When you are held up in serious traffic jam for a long time.
* When there is harassment in public places
* When you do not find response from the local police or other emergency respondents.
Don’ts:-
* Never give hoax messages. Remember, you can be tracked and prosecuted.
* Never send thanks giving, New Year, festival, congratulatory, birthday greetings, inspirational quotes/ jokes to our SMS service
* Never use SMS facility to find out routes to a particular place, lodge complaint about water supply, power failure, garbage disposal in your colony, and weather in Goa, Kashmir etc.
* Never give test SMS to emergency numbers.
As soon as the computer receives SMS, it will be forwarded to the concerned officer(s) in the field immediately by the operator from the SMS centre through a facility called “ACT NOWâ€.
All messages will be stored in the database and they can be retrieved as and when required. This facility will function on 24×7 basis. However, citizens should note that it is only designed to receive the text messages not the voice calls and perform chatting. There will be reply by way of prompt action but not by reply SMS.
If action is not seen on urgent issues, on dialling 100, citizens can also send SMS to this number. However, in life threatening situations, every efforts will be made by the police to reach the victim as early as possible.
Read this article and make a phone call to the number mentioned giving the details of the anonymous caller.. http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/26/stories/2007042619170500.htm
I’m copying the content from Hindu daily here:
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The City police are planning to set up a helpline to assist citizens beleaguered by unwanted telephone calls and text messages.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Harshita Attaluri said an increasing number of mobile phone users in the city, particularly women, are becoming victims of abusive, obscene, threatening and annoying calls from anonymous persons using prepaid cards.
Ms. Harshita said every month she received at least 30 complaints of this nature from mobile phone and fixed landline users. The number of petitions reflected just a fraction of the actual scale of the ongoing mischief. It was saddening that most victims preferred to suffer the misbehaviour in silence than approach the police, she said. Most of the women complainants had to endure vulgar language and sexually explicit comments.
A considerable number of victims of abusive calls were men, including police and Fire department officials. Few complainants said anonymous callers had threatened them with physical assault.
A woman lawyer said she received persistent calls at odd hours on her mobile phone for nearly two weeks. The bothersome caller had taken a fancy for the ring back tone she had set on her mobile. “It was very annoying and stressful. He would call from different numbers till I warned him of police action,” she said. In another case, a journalist was beset by frustrating “non-speech or silent calls” on his fixed telephone line at home. The calls, often scary for womenfolk at home, stopped when he made it public that he had installed a caller identification system.
Another police official said pranksters often selected mobile phone numbers of their victims at random. He said it was best not to reveal personal details to anonymous callers, including those who claim that they are representing “telemarketing” companies, private banks or credit card firms. There have been instances of mischief-makers mimicking the voices of women to throw their victims off-guard. A house wife, who received scores of unsolicited calls on her mobile phone, later learned to her dismay her telephone number had been posted anonymously on a dating website.
He said those who receive unwanted calls should write down the date, time and duration of the call along with the caller’s number. It would be ideal to take note of the accent of the caller and also background noise, if any.
The DCP said action would be taken against vendors who sell prepaid mobile telephone calls without accurately verifying the identity of the buyer. The vendors are expected to keep a record of the identification documents furnished by the buyer. The public could address complaints directly to her at the Crime Stopper Number, 1090 or at her office, 0471-2321676.
My sister got harrassing calls from 2 such numbers : 9567041058 and 9567219885. Both were reported to 94979 00000. After that the calls stopped.
Someone called me sometimes back continuously, sometimes more than 50 times in a day, and throughout the night time. i never took the call, and at last last i attended the call, and i wanted to know who is this in a very diplomatic way.
He didnt revealed his identity at first time, but when i talked to him for 2 days, he revealed some of his identities. He told me that he is working with airtel, and its very easy for him to get the phone numbers of IT girls. they used to try numbers in random and make friendship with girls. they were telling they can even collect some private talks between the lovers, couples and some other people, and thats their past time.
This implies that , the companies like Airtel doesn’t have any security for our personal information or privacy. anyone working with them can peep in to our details and privacy at anytime, and some of such people can bug people continuously.
Only a very few people knew about where to complain to stop such harassment, and even if they knew, only a small fraction of people will come forward with complaints. most of the people wont complain because they think like it would become a headache to go after the police for it. That difficulty encourages such anti socials to disturb and harass more and more ladies in our society.
Very shocking…
How we can trust these mobile companies?
So bad for airtel… because many of such calls are coming from airtel numbers, and most of the victims are airtel number holders.
NEVER USE AIRTEL CONNECTIONS…. IT IS VERY EASY TO GET HARRASSED BY THE LEAKING NUMBERS FROM AIRTEL…
If you have any such complaints, don’t hesitate to complain it to the cyber police. The numbers are there in technoparktoday itself.
http://www.technoparktoday.com/links/emergency-helplines/
When I had worked in the gulf for nearly 4 years, some days I got voip calls in my mobile phone, hence I cannot track the number, always in malayalam, I abused the caller very badly in malayalam and in english, when I got it in midnight, while I was in night shift or wile I was sleeping.Automatically It stopped the disgusting male malayali voices coming from my blackberry8510.I am not advicing anybody to do so.But informing the authority is good.
Such calls come even from Gulf to ladies’ mobile. We need to expose these mf idiots. We need to publish their phone number openly in forums and blogs.
yes, we need to publish such numbers in public forums like this, then only they will stop calling.
Please spread this message to everyone, so that victims can share the phone numbers in public discussion forums and their experience with such idiots.
And we need to forward this to the cyber police, so that they can investigate about those numbers.
so the anonymous and irritating callers, the we will let you know the taste of your own medicine.
friends, please join us to spread this message
My wife got lots of harrassing call from +966559525614 from Saudi Arabia for many days. We had to throw away the SIM. They are spoiling ladies even from abroad!!!!
I rcvd calls from 3 different nos. from Kashmir (+918803540832, +919858552318, +918041400555)
all from d same person.
pls help me to get rid from this bizzare !
i dnt knw how did they find my number & frm where.
Infact they also created my profile on a job portal site with my resume.
Pls help in this matter.
Biji,
Since it is from Kashmir, please file a complaint to Cyber police in the mentioned number/website in the above article.
Never ignore calls from unknown people, because we don’t know who is calling. That person may belong to some anti social or terrorists links – not because of form kashmir, but it is applicable to anywhere even in our small kerala. or even he may belongs to some kind of rackets( drug/seks racket).
The danger is when he get caught by police, they will check the phone calls coming to and going from his mobile, and once they found that your number in the list, you will be in trouble.
So never ignore such frequent calls from unknown numbers, Tell them to stop it first, and if they are continuing it like that, please report it in to cyber police as soon as possible.
Otherwise it would be very dangerous, it can eat up your life in a later point.
pls adv the website, where i can file a complaint.
m frm mumbai.
tks
Nice Work… Share this People…i am sure lots of people will benefit.
Good Initiative TPT. Keep up the good work.
I don’t understand why you have to wait for the authorities to ‘request’ you to submit the numbers. Please do handover the numbers to the Police Dept at the earliest.
Don’t take any connection from inside technopark….. Go to any of their office in city and take connection…. The agents of mobile companies inside technopark are frauds from kazhakkoottam area….. They even will follow ladies upto their hostels….
Annan, What you said is true. there is a racket behind all the frauds targeting the girls from technopark. They are collecting the numbers from the executives in the mobile phone companies,and keep calling the girls staying in hostels. Sometimes they may get a few. and these racket is starting misusing them. Most of the girls in technopark are just out from their colleges and staying away from their family. so these rackets are using them in many ways. many people know about it and I wonder why a serious investigation is not happening from the police regarding this issue.