Recently, a member of Indians in Perth social media group shared his experience with a scam caller probably from India.
The scam caller identified himself from Telstra and told the man that someone was trying to access his internet.
“Just got of a call from a guy pretending to be from Telstra. Thought of checking what they really are after. This guy told me that some people are trying to access my internet and I could go to jail as a result for their actions. Further asked me to go to event viewer on my laptop and showed some events and then started asking for IP address etc.”
The man immediately recognised that this was a scam call.
Such callers often claim to be from well-known organisations and try to convince you of the urgent need to follow their instructions.
People are requested to not give any information and always think twice before giving away personal details to such unknown callers.
The person further shared that the caller, a young man from India, was fluent in English and also a fake Australian accent.
“The guy was from India and used a private number to contact me on my cell phone. He was fluent in speaking English and had put on an accent. When I grilled him I got to know that he is an undergraduate and is working at some agency to get quick money. He agreed that he is just a scam.”
According to Telstra, customers should look out for the following to recognise a scam:
- Calls from people impersonating representatives from well-known organisations, such as the Government, or familiar brands and companies.
- Calls seeking financial details (such as your credit card or banking details) in order to process a refund or other “overpayment”.
- Callers which attempt to apply a lot of pressure, urging you to take immediate action to address a problem.
- Callers advising that your computer has a virus or is attacking others.
If you receive any such call, please follow these steps immediately:
- If you’re not sure that the person on the other end of the phone actually is who they say they are, hang up and call the organisation by using their official published contact details.
- If the caller is claiming to represent Telstra, do not share your personal information, credit card or online account details over the phone unless you made the call and the phone number you called came from a trusted source, such as contact details obtained from your physical bill.
- Don’t respond to missed calls that come from numbers you don’t recognise. Calling back may result in instant charges in excess of $20.
- Be careful of phone numbers beginning with “190”. These are charged at a premium rate and can be expensive.
- Be careful of being tricked into calling expensive international phone numbers.
- If you think something’s not quite right, just hang up. If it’s an SMS, delete it and don’t reply.