A phone scam from CANADA
If you’re getting random phone calls from Ontario or Toronto, and it’s not your Aunt Doris, you’re not alone.
Hundreds of people from across New Zealand responded to a Facebook request from Stuff Taranaki on Monday to get in touch if they had received phone calls from Ontario or Toronto numbers over the past several months.
Often the Canada-based callers have known the name of the person they have called and ask about signing up for an online trading scheme.
Tyla Hare, from Bell Block in Taranaki, said she was receiving calls and texts every day for the last couple of weeks.
‘‘Sometimes it’s like rung five times a day.
‘‘I decided to listen to their voicemail and they asked if it was ‘‘Tyla Hare’’; they know my exact name and last name.’’
She said it was ‘‘pretty freaky’’, and the number of calls had increased.
‘‘It’s got way worse.’’ Maureen Whale, from New Plymouth, said she had been getting calls for about 12 months.
‘‘Every time I notice them coming up on my phone, as soon as it stops ringing I block them every time, but they keep coming back with a new number.’’
Some people also reported numbers from the US or UK.
Spark senior communications partner Ellie Cross said there have been a couple of recent examples of a large number of landlines in a geographical area being called on the same day.
‘‘In these instances, scammers are using an auto-dial system, which adds a ‘1’ each time it dials a new number. This enables the scammer to systematically call all the numbers in a particular area.
‘‘There does seem to be a preponderance of calls from Canada at the moment. I spoke to our fraud manager, and he said there is a property investment fraud scam from Canada, so it could be the same one.’’
She said in the case of mobile numbers, it could be a bot cycling through numbers, or they may have obtained a list of phone numbers from somewhere.
Kiri Coughlan, external communications manager from Vodafone NZ, said they were aware of increased scam calling from Canada within the last month or two.
She said scammers may know your name from previous calls going to message.
‘‘Vodafone’s cyber defence team is also aware of overseas reports that telemarketers may be using an automated system to work out which phone numbers around the world are picked up and at what time, and then onselling that information.’’
A 2degrees spokesperson said that the calls from Canada appeared to be part of a Wangiri scam, which relies on customers calling the unknown numbers back and getting charged inflated rates.. ‘‘2degrees, in conjunction with other operators, actively monitor calling patterns to try and stay ahead of and block such scams.’’
The companies recommended ignoring any unexpected overseas calls, not calling the number back and reporting suspicious activity to your provider or the Department of Internal Affairs.
Izar Hiroti, a truck driver from Waitara, said he had noticed missed calls, and he had called back one of the numbers. A woman on the other end ‘‘played dumb’’.
‘‘I happened to catch one of them in Mokau, on Thursday I think.
‘‘Some trading thing they reckoned I’d applied for.
‘‘It just gets annoying because you’re a truck driver and next thing you have to pull over and answer.’’
‘‘I decided to listen to their voicemail and they asked if it was ‘‘Tyla Hare’’; they know my exact name and last name.’’
Tyla Hare