A new phone scam in Australia involves hackers spamming numerous calls to the victim. If an unknown person calls you with a phone number that begins in "0480 036," do not answer that.
The scammers have a fresh way to annoy the people amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Since it's now easier to exploit victims online, common individuals cannot easily know the anonymous contact.
Phone Number Scams Go Rampant in Australia
The latest phone call scam in Australia involves a series of number variations which consist of seven digits.
News.com.au reported on Thursday, Sept.16, that many Australians are posting call logs that came from an unknown source.
Some numbers are identical to the first seven digits mentioned before.
With a common pattern revolving around the seven digits, the scammers still use the starting numbers. However, what's different in some complaints is the changes in the last three digits.
Aussies Complain About the Phone Scam
Since this cyber threat is still ongoing in the country, some victims shared their stories with other people.
One person said that a clear sign of this phone-based scam is the prefix 0480 036, which is used for multiple calls. The victim further warned those who received the call to never leave a single message to avoid being harassed.
Still, another victim who experienced a similar scam noted that he picked up the phone call, the person on the other line only hung up. Just like what the first person uttered, only the last digits were altered.
Still, there is another complaint that suggested that the phone call was only a pre-recorded message made to infuriate the victims. There was a time when this user received a phone call saying he was wanted for a crime.
At that time, the victims answered phone calls with variations such as 0431 575 XXX, 0401 747 XXX, and more.
While blocking the number can be an effective way to avoid the phone scam, the scam could be tricky as cybercrimimals auto-dial the same person using a different number.
More complaints can be found in Reverse Australia.
With people rapidly getting into the digital trend, the number of phishing scams was observed to be increasing in 2021. It even became worse when the cases ballooned last month.
Phishing Scam Alerts
It's always good to be alert when you receive a notification from a contact that you do not know personally.
In 2019, 43 million Americans have been reportedly involved in many scam calls. The common scenario of this attack involves making a call to the number and later hung it up.
The case of Wangiri has been focused on scamming people through international calls. Overseas individuals are the most common victims of this phishing trap.
Earlier in September, many people were startled by the recent email scam on both Microsoft Outlook and Gmail applications. This vishing scam tackles a request that the victim should make due to item purchases.
Related Article: New UPS Delivery Scam Fools Victim Through Suspicious Email--Here's How to Identify and Avoid it
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Joseph Henry
