With the advancement of information technologies and millions of people reaping its benefits, a number of malpractices – even though not entirely every time as some are not designed for fraudulent activities – have also surfaced along with it. Therefore for quite a few years now, the amount of fraudulent practices such as mobile scams has increased manifold inflicting financial losses to a number of mobile users.
The kinds of suspicious messages usually vary as divergent tactics are applied to hoodwink the receivers i.e. the people are lured with awards from famous televised programs like Jeeto Pakistan or Inaam Ghar, and then are asked to deposit a certain amount to a specific number.
Likewise, a mobile user would receive a message that he/she had won a lottery or his/her name had been entitled to receive an amount from a people’s welfare-oriented scheme like Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). Besides, playing with human emotions and pleading for financial help via SMS towards a destitute has also been a very successful way of deceiving innocent people.
However, as above indicated, it’s not always a matter of having fallen prey to a scam, etc; rather, it’s also related to an inconvenience which a mobile user has to suffer if he/she frequently receives unwanted messages.
Multiple Companies or even Cellular Service Providers like Ufone, Zong, Jazz, and Telenor are addicted to sending promotional messages to mobile users. Though sometimes such messages turn out to be very informative but other than that, they are very annoying and distracting.
✅ان چا ہے/ مارکیٹنگ کے پیغاما ت کو رو کنےکیلئے: (میسج بھیجے والے کا فون نمبر)(سپیس)(وصول شدہ میسج)کو 9000 پرایس ایم ایس کریں۔
✅گمنام نمبروں کو بلاک کرانے کیلئے 420 پررپورٹ کریں۔
شکایت کا ازالہ نہ ہونے کی صورت میں متعلقہ سروس فراہم کنندہ سے رابطہ کریں.— PTA Pakistan (@PTAofficialpk) February 11, 2020
So if you are trying to find out how to block unwanted and promotional messages in Pakistan, you need to adopt the following procedures;
- In order to block unwanted and promotional messages; Type ‘Sender’s Phone Number’, give ‘Space’, Type ‘Received Message’, and send it to ‘9000’ via SMS.
- Report your complaint to ‘420’ and block unknown numbers.
- Contact your Service Provider if your registered complaints are not addressed.
