Young boys' mobile phone pizza scam uncovered
Kids borrow mobile phones to order and pay for take-away pizzas
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A group of young boys, estimated to be about 15 years of age, are suspected of tricking people into paying for their pizzas.
In the scam, one of the kids will ask a passer-by to lend him a mobile phone, ostensibly to call his mother.
The boy gives his own phone, which he says is not working, to the passer-by as a security deposit of sorts.
With the borrowed mobile phone, the boy calls the Kotipizza pizza take-out chain. The service makes it possible to both order and pay for the pizza, whose price appears in the monthly bill of the mobile phone subscriber.
Under the mobile phone payment system employed in a number of Kotipizza restaurants, the customer calls a premium-rate number, after which the customer gets a confirmation call, during which time the person who placed the order specifies the toppings. After that, the customer can pick up the pizza.
The Ruoholahti Kotipizza in the southwest of Helsinki is one of the locations where the scam has been played out.
Staff at pizzeria said that after a number of fraudulent orders, the mobile phone payment system was suspended. "At least one customer is considering pressing criminal charges", the owner says.
Suspicions were aroused when the same boys kept picking up pizzas, which had been ordered from different numbers.
When the owners of the pizzeria called the numbers that the orders came from, those who answered said that they had not ordered anything, and each one of them had recently lent a mobile phone to a stranger.
Most of the victims of the scam were adults, but some young boys were also tricked.
"Nobody lends anyone a credit card or a wallet, notes Kari Leppilahti, CEO of Kotipizza, who cannot understand why anyone would let a stranger use his or her mobile phone.
Risto Ihalainen, CEO of Uphill, the company which provides the mobile phone payment service used by Kotipizza agrees.
"It is not a good idea to lend a phone to anyone: nowadays it is possible to pay for all kinds of things by mobile phone. If you want to play it safe, it is best to put blocks on outgoing calls."
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 2.5.2008 - TODAY |
 Young boys' mobile phone pizza scam uncovered |
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