It's called "spam" and it's the plague of the electronic era: messages and e mails you don't need and probably don't want, that are sent to your phone as text messages or your e mail addresses as junk mail. Now spammers have penetrated BTL's cell phone services, and are sending BTL subscribers messages that could cost them money.
Over the past few days, some BTL cellular customers have been receiving messages originating in Guatemala. The messages are in Spanish and they tell the recipient that they've won some kind of prize. Of course, to get the prize, you've got to surrender valuable personal banking information - and there's the rub. Those who do volunteer that information could lose money from their bank accounts. Today BTL sent out the alarm: beware of these spam messages.
Lynette Canto, BTL's Public Relations Exec.
"We have been receiving calls stating that people are receiving text messages originating from a 502 number which is from Guatemala. The contents of the messages are in Spanish, basically, and they state that the person, the recipient has won some grand prize. The recipient is then advised to call a number in Guatemala for further information. It is my understanding that when they call this number, they are told that they need to provide personal information and in some cases even to send money via one of the money transfer companies here in Belize.
We have no way of knowing who is sending the messages. They are from legitimate sources, or numbers in Guatemala, but it is going to be difficult because from what we understand, they are prepaid numbers so it would be rather difficult to pinpoint who exactly is sending the messages."
Alfonso Noble,
Is this a scam?
Lynette Canto,
"It appears to be but it would be difficult from my end to say that it is a scam but because they are being sent to so many people, that would be my opinion, that it is a scam. Since our numbering series in Belize is limited, 610, 600, 602 for example, they can randomly choose numbers and then just send it off.
The persons sending the messages are now using the company name 'BitTL' and some people hearing this are of the assumption that it is a BTL promotion since 'BitTL' and 'BTL' sound so much alike. We want to advise our customers that this is not a BTL promotion, that we are not doing any raffle of this sort and that when we do do promotions, we advertise it highly and it is very transparent so be very careful when you choose to respond to these messages."
Canto says BTL will be sending out advisories to customers through text messages warning them not to respond to the text messages.
