Australians are being targeted by a sophisticated scam whereby scammers claim to be from Telstra and threaten to disconnect your phone services within one day if actions are not taken over the phone.
Thousands of Australians have already been contacted by these scammers. Our very own David has received calls from these individuals on multiple occasions over the past week. Judging by the accent of the callers initiating the recent calls, these scammers are operating from outside of Australia, beyond the reach of our privacy laws.
The caller will normally claim to be able to fix the issue for a small service fee that is to be paid upfront over the phone. They have also been known to ask people to download software onto a computer so that the scammer can install malware to steal your details. If you continue talking to the caller, but resist or question their claims, they are likely to threaten to sue you for putting Telstra’s infrastructure at risk.
According to the SCAMwatch website, Australians have been getting fooled by this effective scam since 2014. Scammers in recent weeks appear to have ramped up their activity along with calls where the operator claims to be from Microsoft alerting you to a virus on your computer.
If you are receive a call of this nature, SCAMwatch recommends you just hang up the phone.
Have you received one of these phone calls in the past? Explain what happened below to keep us informed.
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