Telus Spreading Word About Phone Scams
By 250 News
Sunday, March 08, 2009 04:27 AM
Prince George, B.C.- Telus is trying to get the message out about phone and email scammers that are making the rounds saying there seems to have been an increase in the scams in recent days. The common thread in each scam is that fraud artists try to trick customers out of personal information by posing as a legitimate caller.
Telus is working with law enforcement officials to track the calls and identify the perpetrators of all scams it is aware of.
People who provide personal information to fraudsters could suffer identity theft or other fraud. Personal information includes names, addresses, birthdates, account numbers, passwords, credit card numbers, etc.
Here are the scams that are making the rounds:
· Fraudulent email to telus.net email customers. The email falsely states TELUS is sending this email to all customers for ‘safety/maintenance from spam mails.’ It asks users to reply to the email with account information including name and password, saying they will be disconnected if they do not reply. This email is a fraud. Delete it.
· Credit card limit increase phone scam. The fraudster claims to be with your credit card company and offers to increase your credit limit. They ask for information to verify who you are. If the caller was actually from your credit card company they wouldn’t have to ask for basic information, but would already have it. This is a scam. Hang up.
· Vehicle warranty. There are several variants of this scheme and in most cases the caller is attempting to sell a warranty extension for your vehicle. Several of the organizations behind these schemes have been banned from soliciting in some provinces and states due to misrepresentation of their products and failure to comply with local insurance laws. Exercise extreme caution.
· 809 Caribbean scam. The fraudster will try to convince the customer to call a number starting with 809 about winning a prize or a lawsuit or for information about an injured or ill family member. 809 is the country area code for the Dominican Republic, which lacks the robust phone laws Canadians are accustomed to. When the victim calls back they are often put on hold for an extended period of time, racking up large phone bills.
· The 90# scam. This phone scam affects businesses with a commercial switchboard called a PBX. These systems have a feature that allows switchboard operators to give callers an outside line by dialing 9,0,#. Fraudsters take advantage of this feature by posing as a technician or other legitimate caller, and convincing operators to give them an outside line which they then use for an expensive overseas call. While residential phone customers cannot be directly affected by this scam they do get calls, which can often be frightening. Whether you are a business or residential phone user, this is a scam. Hang up.
Telus says it has received reports of these scams from wireless phone, home phone, business phone, and Internet customers across Canada. While there’s always some level of fraudulent activity being reported, in recent weeks Telus has seen a fourfold increase in reports from customers of all these scams. Telus says it suspects most of the fraudulent calls are coming from outside of Canada.
If you receive a call you suspect is fraudulent, do not give out personal information and simply hang up. Legitimate telemarketers will always know your name and will always provide you with a number for you to call them back at your convenience.
If you believe you may have given personal information to a scam artist and need assistance securing your TELUS account, please call TELUS Fraud Management at 1-877-567-2062.
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Posted by: BCRacer on March 8 2009 7:58 AM
Or simply punch in 90# for the operator, to collect your free gift have your social insurance number and bank account number handy.