A false ring

Anonymous calls offering special promotions aren't unusual, but when a news reporter answered one last Friday afternoon, she became a defendant in a criminal case. Or that's how it seemed.

Nam (not her real name) told The Nation that the number-withheld call began with an automated voice claiming to be from the Criminal Court, where a writ had been issued against her.

Identity theft

"It frightened me because I was told to press 1, otherwise I would face punishment under criminal law. I pressed 1 and got a woman who said she was a court official. When I asked her about the details of the case she said she would need my full name and ID card num¬ber to find my file."

Luckily for Nam, a poor signal cut the call short before she could give her ID number.

"The shock of becoming a defendant fooled me into giving personal information, even though I had a feeling I was being deceived."

With the operator was unable to trace the number, she phoned the court and discovered the call had been fraudulent.

Nam learned that the day before, a colleague had been victim of a similar call. Again, the number could not be traced.

ATM con

Similar phone fraud occurred last month — members of a ThaiTaiwanese gang claiming to be from the Revenue Department rang wealthy individuals about a tax refund available through an ATM. But after the transaction ended, the victims found that their bank accounts had been drained.

Police arrested the gang early this month.

More than a thousand people have called the court in the last month to ask the same question as Nam.

"Over the past two weeks we have been getting about 100 calls a day," says a court official.

 Even one of the official's colleagues has been targeted by the scam. "After hearing she worked for the court, the caller rushed to hang up."

She adds that all Courts of Justice inform defendants via paper writs and never phone them at all.

The Office of the Judiciary issued a warning about the fraud calls on March 20.