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Phone phishing scams are a particularly nasty brand of telephone based fraud that is often aimed at the elderly or vulnerable, as well as those who are likely to have limited technological information at their disposal. They tend to take the form of someone cold-calling your home or mobile under the pretence of being some of import (a police officer, bank official etc) and requesting your personal banking details. They may pressure you with the idea that your account will be cancelled or your card rendered unusable if you don’t comply, or say that you have already been scammed and that they are trying to help you.

How these phone scams start

HOW THESE PHONE SCAMS START

You may be subject to what’s known as a “warm up” call at some point during the scam which no personal or classified information is requested or alluded to. This is a clever way of building false confidence as well as a foundation from which they can subsequently ask for details during these kinds of phone scams.

Avoid becoming a victim of voice phishing scams

HOW THESE PHONE SCAMS START

  1. Never share any of your details such as your PIN or online/telephone banking login details to anyone over the phone whether they claim to be your banker or a police officer. Officials will NEVER ask for these details.
  2. If you get an unexpected or suspicious call, be sure to check the legitimacy of this call by taking the caller’s name and then callin the official and trusted number for the organization they claim to represent.
  3. If you have any doubts, tell the caller that you will call the branch or organization directly to deal with the issue; they may try to scare you into not hanging up, but if they do so consider this a warning sign.

Tricks to keep an eye on

TRICKS TO KEEP AN EYE ON

Such fraudsters may also use a trick to keep your phone line open. A good example of how they might do this is by not hanging up when you do and playing fake dial tone when you try to contact the official branch or individual. To avoid this try using a different phone line where possible, or by calling a friend or family first to ensure that your line is clear.

We hope this article on phone scams has been useful. If so, please leave us a comment.


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