SMS Polis Message

[Ian]

Hi - just for other's who may have received same - I got this message a few minutes ago on my Turkish mobile:

Polis, savci  adiyla para ve kontor istenirse, inanmayin.
Telefonu kapatin.
155 Polis imdat
hattini arayin.
Sizi arayan numarayi bildirin

With the help of Google Translate it seems to be saying:

The police, the prosecutor asked kontor under the name of money and do not believe it.
Turn off the phone.
155 Police emergency line call.
Report the number calling you

So I think it is saying if you get a call from someone asking for money and claiming to be the Police - report it

Hopefully someone will clarify a little better than I can   

[loz]

?i am surprised you have not had this message before, it has been doing the rounds for a few years. A father and son were caught last year and imprisoned, yet I don't feel that they would be the only 2 involved.
by all means write the number down, but delete the message, do not reply and forget it.  If you reply they have then found a live number, it is a bit like those PPI calls in UK, reply to the text message and it is just another live number for the scum t sell on.

[Janbee]

I had the same message on my mobile, I translated it, then deleted it as I thought it was sent to me by mistake!

[Ian]

I wasn't going to reply - much too street wise for that but I actually thought this was a genuine "warning" message as it came from Polis - 155 and advised to ring 155 if we received any calls / texts asking for money.

I wouldn't have thought someone could hijack that 155 number?

I thought it showed a good level of Customer Service from the Polis - but maybe I am wrong - won't be the first time   

[loz]

I will try to find the news report, it explains how it is done.


My fault, I should read the message. loads of caffine and now awake. 
A few years back there was a message or a phone call stating that they were the police/prosecutor and problem with phone or words to that effect, they would ask to confirm the number by contacting them and the persons on the other end would gain your phone credits and details, hence the message to contact the polis 155 to confirm the phone number and let them deal.

[Ian]

Loz - hi - right - understand.
I suppose it is easier as well on ex-pats as you tend not to want to "offend" officialdom!

A good example of this is I am going for my first MOT on Thursday and I have tried to enter onto the MTV website my details to see if I owe any traffic fines (unlikely I think for my little scooter) but it won't tell me so then I think "should I go to the MTV desk at the tax office - and ask "do I owe anything?" - but my instinct is that if I do that I might be volunteering to contribute to the next bayram party - even if I don't owe anything - they may fine me !!!!