BOGOTA (Reuters) -- Colombian mobile telephone users are being tricked by criminals who pretend to be phone operators and instruct them to turn off their cellphones just long enough to demand a large amount of money from their families. prefix = st1 /Colombia has seen a large number of cases in which mobile phone customers receive messages telling them to turn off their cellphones for two hours because their telephones havebeen cloned, police say. The criminals then contact family members of the phone user to say that he or she has been taken hostage  . Families who have no way of contacting their   are directed where to drop off money before the two hours are up. "If you get a call telling you to turn off your cellphone, contact the official department." Local television channel Caracol told viewers during a Tuesday news program. BERLIN (Reuters) -- A Berlin court has sentenced a man known as "Schnitzel Stephan" to 18 months in prison for cheating 64 restaurants in the past year. The man of 160 kg, with a thin grey beard, would regularly order lamb chops, steak or Viennese schnitzel along with several beers. When the bill came, he either ran for the door or told the waiter he had no money. Iris Berger, a spokeswoman for the Berlin Justice Department, said on Thursday the 43-year-old jobless truck driver had been convicted ( ) on 64 counts of fraud ( ). The total damage to restaurants was $4,100. If cellphone users are told to turn off their phones, what are they advised to do?
Contact TV stations. Keep in touch with their family members. Report it to the police. Think twice before doing something.