Police warn of new Telstra scam targeting seniors
Thousands of Aussies have been scammed out of millions of dollars after falling for hackers posing as Telstra employees over the phone.
Police have issued a warning about the new phone scam, which particularly targets vulnerable elderly people.
The scammers gain the trust of homeowners by asking whether they have been targeted by cold callers.
They then offer a solution to stop the unwanted sales calls but ask for credit card details and passwords to “access personal computers” to guarantee the service.
Leading Senior Constable Janine Walker told The Courier that personal details should never be given over the phone.
“Nobody is going to call you cold unless you’ve made an initial inquiry or complaint,” she said.
“If somebody rings you out of the blue without any prior prompting or knowledge about an issue then it’s fairly safe to say that person is trying to scam you.”
Constable Walker said the elderly and people living alone were most vulnerable to these scams.
A victim, named Peter, said he spoke with a hacker from Telstra.
"He had an Asian voice and said he was from Telstra," he said.
"He asked if I get unwanted calls and he said ‘I can stop that tomorrow but I need some credit card details’.
"I was thinking, this is bullshit, but I'll play along with you.
"He started to get annoyed, but for someone older he could've sounded very plausible.”
Last year the ACCC recorded that Australians lost a whopping $340 million – a $40 million increase from 2016.
ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said scams were a national problem affecting millions of Australians.
“It's very worrying that Australians are losing such extraordinary amounts to scammers,” she said earlier this year. “Based on just the reports provided to the ACCC, victims are losing an average of $6500.”
“In some cases people have lost more than $1 million.
“Some scams are becoming very sophisticated and hard to spot.
“Scammers use modern technology like social media to contact and deceive their victims.
“In the past few years, reports indicate scammers are using aggressive techniques both over the phone and online.”
The ACCC encourages people to visit www.scamwatch.gov.au to report scams so it can warn others about them,