Two recent cases of fraudsters trying to snare Qatar residents by telling them they have won prizes in a contest held by a mobile operator have come to light.

On Saturday, a long-time Doha resident said he received one such call on his mobile phone through Viber from a person who asked him if was aware that he "had won QR200,000 cash award " in a contest conducted by a local mobile operator. The caller said he was chosen as a winner randomly by the service provider.
To make the call look like genuine, the fraudster also told him that his name was repeatedly being shown on a TV channel and the call was now being made as the "lucky winner" had not responded to announcements until then.
However, it took no time for the alert recipient to realise that the caller was a fraudster and he asked for his name and other details. He also told him that he required such information as he wanted to verify it with the customer service department of the local mobile operator. At this stage, the trickster cut off the call.
Though it was a fake call, the recipient was wondering how the caller could address him by his real name.
Talking to Gulf Times, the Doha resident said the caller's identity was shown as `Ooredoo QTell' and the wrong spelling of the second word was enough for him to conclude that it was a fake call. Later the call was traced to the number 92-3078877375.
Another resident said he also received a similar call recently.
Local telecom operators Ooredoo and Vodafone have repeatedly cautioned customers about such scamsters, who might ask their potential victims to oblige with a slew of things to claim the "prize money."