THE SMS message on her phone told her she had won $9,500 in the Yahoo 2008 Special Program.

For a moment, Madam Rohana Ramli thought she had really struck it rich.

'But then I wondered how I had won since I did not remember taking part in any contest linked to Yahoo,' Madam Rohana, 47, an advertising sales representative, said.

'Then I wondered if it was a scam.'

She was right.

A Yahoo spokesman told The New Paper that Madam Rohana's text message, which was sent to her on 22 Oct, was a fake.

And she is not the only one who has received such messages, as checks from telcos SingTel and M1 revealed.

The Yahoo spokesman said that Yahoo never sends SMS messages to winners of its contests, and never asks contest winners for their credit card numbers or sensitive personal information.

Madam Rohana's message, which listed Yahoo Mail as the sender, had said that winners were to contact an e-mail address, mailprize295@yahoo.com, to know more about their free claims and delivery details.

The Yahoo spokesman said that Madam Rohana's message was similar to other messages used in previous scams worldwide.

He said such scams had also hit Internet service providers such as Hotmail and Google, and they had also stated they did not endorse such messages.

The spokesman said Yahoo could not specify the source of Madam Rohana's SMS message as no sender telephone number was indicated, but it could have been sent from a computer.

He said: 'The sender of the SMS may have hacked into a database of telephone numbers from telecommunications companies here and then randomly picked numbers as SMS recipients.

'He or she could have created the message using computer software and then sent it from a computer using software that can mask his or her contact details and identity.'

Madam Rohana, a SingTel subscriber, said she had never received such messages on her handphone before, and had not knowingly released her personal information to any third parties.

Lodge police report

The Yahoo spokesman recommended that she report the matter to SingTel. A police spokesman said Madam Rohana could also lodge a police report.

SingTel said a 'very small' number of subscribers had complained about messages similar to what Madam Rohana had received.

Its spokesman said that, for privacy reasons, SingTel does not disclose or share customer database or information with third parties, nor does it monitor SMS messages that customers send and receive.

Customers who receive the SMS message should ignore it, and avoid releasing their personal particulars to unfamiliar parties.

The SingTel spokesman declined to comment on whether the person who sent the message to Madam Rohana had obtained her phone number by hacking into its database, but said the sender may have randomly selected her number.

M1 said that a small number of its subscribers received SMS messages similar to Madam Rohana's, and it had advised them to ignore unsolicited messages.

Its spokesman said: 'Customers are generally advised to be careful about disclosing their mobile numbers, which may be misused for marketing and promotional purposes.'

StarHub said none of its subscribers had received such messages.

Madam Rohana said: 'I am glad that I did not follow the instructions blindly. If I had, I might have lost money.'

This story was first published in The New Paper on 7 November 2008.