VIVA takes the lead in battling telecom scam and spam

Manama: Viva yesterday announced that it is creating a multi-layered shield to safeguard its customers from scam calls. The company said it is reaching out to combat the issues on rise by first raising awareness among its customers.

Commenting on the move, VIVA Bahrain Chief Commercial Officer, Andrew Hanna said, “It’s very important for us to protect our customers from falling victims to fraud. This is a primary issue challenging many telecom operators across the world and it requires joint efforts from all parties involved including both the operator and customers.”

“We are stepping into action from our side by creating a multi-layered shield to safeguard our customers, which is molded with public awareness and prevention,” he added.

According to Viva, the three most prevalent matters witnessed among VIVA customers are international ghost calls, lottery calls and calls from fraudsters disguised as VIVA employees on mobile messaging applications like WhatsApp or IMO Instant Messenger.

As a part of VIVA’s preventive approach, customers are urged to not share CPR numbers, confidential pin codes, credit or debit card details or any personal details over the phone on suspicious occasions. Scammers may use this information to commit different acts of theft that involves stealing directly from the customers’ banking accounts or redeem prepaid vouchers.

VIVA also advises customers to reject international calls from unknown numbers and avoid dialing them back even through mobile messaging applications. At times, the scammers calling from mobile applications may display a picture implying they are from VIVA claiming raffle or lottery prizes as a part of a promotion to draw confidential information, whereas others may simply request a small amount of phone credit to be transferred. VIVA advises that calls as such must be discarded at all times.

In an effort to crack down on the number of scammers and put the issue to an end, VIVA is requesting customers to report a complaint against any case of spam or scam to VIVA’s customer care line 124. Details including the scam number, method of use as well as the time and date of call or message are of high importance in combating the issue.

VIVA has clarified that it only calls its customers through its official customer care channels. The company’s official Whatsapp support channel is 34124124 for English support and 35124124 for Arabic support.