Scamwatch: NBN & Telstra Optus Technical Department Scams

They arrest them and prosecute them through the courts. I just gave you an article with many arrests in the USA and India.

Using your logic we should ignore all crime! Once again read the article I linked to, they go after the top people and they are given sentences of around 20 years.

And as I said they could block all traffic from the scammers very quickly

There are no votes in taking action, only a small percentage of people are affected and Australia is utterly and totally useless in prosecuting any crimes like this and always has been. Look at the huge problems with scammers (Gumtree, eBay, driveway resurfacing and roof repairs to name a few) coming here on VISAS that the police do nothing to address, look at the ongoing issues that have been common since early 2000’s with credit card fraud and eBay. Has anything been done? Nope. Our police investigate very little crime and the criminals know that Australia is a soft target.

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I think that @matthew has a point @syncretic. Australia does have an appalling record when it comes to proactively, or actively protecting Jo/e Average’s consumer rights.

Perhaps if State & Federal Governments started chasing down malefactors (including corporations who flout and ignore the ACL), it might save Australians a lot of angst and money that they can’t afford to lose.

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It was DEFINITELY NOT from NBN

Garth

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I also got a message, today (from 0258707121): couldn’t hear first words… went on to say that I would be disconnect as I now was on NBN and…press 1 to talk to a technician. Too easy to spot as shonky: my address has not been connected yet, and I will have to get in touch with my service provider to be transferred on to NBN.
Message got deleted, but it makes me sad to think of others: unsuspecting new comers, the elderly used to a more trustworthy society, who might be caught in the trap, after all it must be paying off or they wouldn’t keep on trying!

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I prefer to press 1 and get connected to the tech and then hang up. :slight_smile:

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If you mean that you retain your phone line because you get your internet (as ADSL) over the phone line, some ISPs will provide you with what is known as a “naked service” i.e. the phone line itself still exists and is used but there is no phone service on it (hence no scam and spam calls), only an ADSL internet service.

However some ISPs may not allow that so if you are trapped in an area where Telstra / Bigpond is your only option then you may be stuck with a phone service.

The good news is that your phone line will be disconnected imminently as NBN is now available in your area. Press 1 to be connected to a tech … :rofl:

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You did well not to to follow the scammers directions, @annaa63, it could be that the first call was a ‘random’ one, but by pressing 1 they might get us on a connection which reveals our phone number (unless it’s a private one) and then feel free to pursue that number.

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my number is private and we will not have NBN connected till June at the earliest.

I know who I want to connect with so random calls I hung up on especially since it takes ages to connect and then you hear an automated voice.

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might have been from overseas if it took a while to connect.

Some will fall for it.

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While I agree in principle that it would be good if action was taken by our government it still doesn’t look like a very practical proposition. The example given of the US prosecution took years (3 years from charging to conviction, who knows how much prior investigation) and involved international cooperation all over the place. Does Oz have the resources of the US Justice Dept? Would such an escapade be a good use of our people compared to other problems? I don’t know how many such cases the US have attempted and what their success rate is, or the cost - but I bet it wasn’t cheap.

Is this kind of enforcement action like the ‘war on drugs’? It shares several features; the high payoff for the crims, the slowness and difficulty of international action, the legion of new starters waiting to take the place of every perp you put away, a means of poor countries extracting money from rich ones, and more. Despite huge sums of money being thrown at that problem, and some notable highly publicised successes, you cannot say a cease fire, much less a victory, is in sight.

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If one would be happy with naked DSL but the carrier doesn’t sell it, one need not plug in a phone. No SPAM / SCAM :slight_smile:

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Simply put MONEY. Foreign income as small as it might be is easy takings to help offset import costs (Balance of Trade). While people complain about the calls you don’t see much of the same irate voicing about changing legislation to stop the selling of Australian numbers to Overseas users who have no actual Australian affiliation. Telstra call centres or similar based overseas are still bound by the DNC and Spam legislation and so you can easily make a complaint and Telstra or whomever will be held accountable. When it is a non Australian based one however like these dodgy spam callers then you have no real recourse.

Want legislative change then contact your Federal reps by phone, visit their electoral offices if close enough, send them emails about the changes, send them snail mail, put a comment in the local paper/s, start a petition or join in one, let your friends and family know about what could be done…all of these things can have an effect to get changes made.

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Another article regarding NBN scams.

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Just got a call from ‘Technical Department from Telstra’ on my land line.

Sounded as if it came from India.

Before she could start I asked her for her number ‘so that hubby’ will call her back. She hung up.

Use that excuse all the time

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Now is a great time to really get into their heads! Accepting change in this area will not come easy or immediately. It is on my list.

My Mum-in-law might fall into the vulnerable category. There are currently three barriers to scammers being successful.

  1. Without her hearing aids in 99.999% reliable, incoming VOIP calls are unintelligible to her.
  2. While the home service comes via the NBN there is no internet and no NBN in her understanding. Sometimes she may pick up on the word like NBN without understanding. It’s just a phone. Although the NBN is in the three letter swear word list. Her reply is usually disconnected from the callers understanding of English language.
  3. If all else fails she has no credit cards or internet banking, and does not know about iTunes. Some payments are by cash over the counter. Most are made by one of the family.

Independence vs assistance is a difficult transition, but can help to reduce the risk.

The one compelling reason to take on all the scammers is to reduce the stress all these scam callers can put on our older Australians.

A good percentage leave our lovely lady confused and worried about that call from Telstra that she neither understood nor can explain. But it sounded important and they wanted something! She can still however very succinctly tell the difference between a ScoMo and a Bill. Perhaps if the scammers made video calls they would stand even less of a chance?:wink:

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A friend of mine asks them to wait a minute while she turned on the recorder like the Federal Police asked her.

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Received a robo call advising me that my internet and landline was about to be cut off unless I immediately press 1 to have my system connected to the NBN.

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Just got a call on the land line.

The robo message informed me that today i will lose my NBN connection and press 1 for x and 2 for y

the place I live in is not NBN ready… they just keep on trying.

The voice told me that she is calling from NBN themselves… many people will fall for this one.

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Sometimes there is a win …

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Perhaps NBN can be taken to task for being a “scammable” entity. Should they have some concern at being the subject of so many scam attempts? The “press one to be connected to a technician” has been an almost daily occurrence on our landline. What are NBN doing to remove this pestering of their customers via their infrastructure?

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