Can Scammers Divert Calls?

Iggemo on 02/04/2018 - 14:11

Gday dudes

So the other day my old man got scammed, he sent a couple thousand bucks to a nobody in the UK via western union cos he was convinced his "sister was stranded"

now i know this is a trash common scam

but here's the thing:

he rang his family in canada to confirm this - and he got a legitimate answer from a person who clearly was pretending to be friends with his sister in canada via his dial.

What im suggesting is that - although the first part of the scam was kinda obvious - the phoning internationally from aus to can to talk to ur family was actually intercepted and spoken to with a fake.

He later spoke to his actual family (he called the same nbr 24 hours later and got the actual family) and something beyond my knowledge is going on

does anyone know anything of such devious call-diverting or any such thing?

Dad lost a fair bit of money - nothing we can do now, interested to know ur thoughts?

Electrical & Electronics

Comments

  • Mumbles on 02/04/2018 - 15:04
    +1

    The scammers are exploiting a problem that only occurs with landline telephone numbers. When an caller rings your father's house telephone they are still on the telephone no matter how many times your father hang's up. Your father hanging up does not end the call. The call only ends when the original caller hangs up their phone.

    You can test this with your father by ringing his house telephone, you stay on the line while he tries to hang up his telephone, then he picks up his phone again and you'll find that you can still talk to each other.

    There's already a lot of similar scams in the UK and in Australia:
    http://www.theukcardsassociation.org.uk/news/phonescam071212…

    Unfortunately because your father has already fallen victim to a scam its likely his number is on a suckers list and will get more scammers calling him again.

    • Iggemo on 02/04/2018 - 15:07

      ahhh i see ! so they called originally on the landline and held it on, and then when he went to call canada, of course they got the scammer?

      Thank you so much for this answer, i really do appreciate it !

      • Mumbles on 02/04/2018 - 15:19
        +1

        Yes. I'd still recommend you and/or your father still go to the local police and notify them of the crime. There may be a way for your father's telephone company to identify the next scam caller that tries this same trick.

        The police might be able to advise him on what to do to help him catch the scammer next time.

        If the scam caller refuses to hangup the landline your father can use his mobile to ring Telstra/Optus, inform them that he has a telephone scammer still on his landline house telephone, provide them the house number. There's a good chance your fathers telephone company can identify the original caller if they are still on the telephone line.

        • Iggemo on 02/04/2018 - 15:23

          Yeah he went to the cops, they more or less said can't do anything cos money was transferred to UK

          but, yes, im just really glad you explained to me what happened - i just spoke to my dad about it - i said did they ask u to call and then u called immediately and he said yes

          so i think you're spot on about what happened

          he lost a fair amount of money sadly, total waste, but at least we know how it happened now

          even today he got a spam call from ppl pretending to be telstra asking for money.. he's old and not kinda au fait with modern tech so i kinda feel sorry for him in terms of looking out for this stuff. I told him basically distrust everything firstly, no govt dept will ever call u and ask for money etc.

          Hopefully he doesnt lose any more money (he's 82 so kinda old now - not familiar with scams etc)

        • Mumbles on 02/04/2018 - 15:43
          +2

          @Iggemo: I feel for you and your elderly father. Sorry to hear he lost a lot of money to a scam.

          A good place to arm yourself with information about local scams is the ACCC's scam website:
          https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/

          Use of modern technology might help. Perhaps your father could try an easy to use mobile phone like the Nokia 3310.

          My best personal tip for eliminating 90% of scam callers is disconnect the landline and rely on the mobile handset (assuming you have good mobile reception in your area).

          2nd is when you receive calls on the mobile handset make use of its free caller ID and check if its from a private/unknown caller. For unknown callers just let it ring out and go to voicemail.

          3rd is setup a polite voicemail greeting that asks people to leave a contact number for you to call back.

          I was forced to give up my landline telephone 2 years ago when the NBN became available which meant the local telephone exchange was switching off the landline phone permanently. I now only have a mobile number and my life has become much more peaceful. I no longer get the weekly calls from india scammers and Australian charities.

  • picklewizard on 05/04/2018 - 14:02

    he rang his family in canada to confirm this - and he got a legitimate answer from a person who clearly was pretending to be friends with his sister in canada via his dial.

    So he called his family, someone he doesn't know answered the phone, and no alarm bells went off? :/

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