Unfortunately, high technologies designed to improve the quality of life are often used by fraudsters for their own selfish purposes. Very often you can hear about telephone scammers who, using the gullibility of citizens, by deception extort quite large sums of money from them. In order not to become a victim of telephone scams, you should always keep your cool head and the ability to think logically, as well as know some simple rules to recognize a cheater.
Common types of phone fraud
You must remember once and for all that a call from your telephone operator will never be anonymous; in this case, a well-known short number or just a name should be displayed on the screen: "Tele2", "MTS", etc. Therefore, when you receive a call from unknown numbers, posing as your operator and offering to connect the Internet or cable TV with a bonus discount, by sending an SMS to a short number as confirmation of consent, be prepared for a large amount to be debited from your mobile phone account. Naturally, no service will be connected to you.
You should never call the number of your plastic card and, moreover, its pin code, even when you are supposedly called from the bank with a message that due to a technical error, your card has been blocked. Some gullible citizens also manage to go to the nearest ATM and, following the instructions of the "bank employee", send money from the same "blocked" card in an unknown direction.
If they call you on the phone supposedly on behalf of a friend with some kind of money request, do not be lazy to call him back before transferring any amount, even a small one.
A common scam is to send an SMS supposedly from a friend in a deliberately familiar tone, for example: "Hi, throw money on this number - mine is blocked, I'll give it back tomorrow." And many, oddly enough, transfer money to a completely unfamiliar number, mistakenly believing that some loved one got into an unpleasant situation and simply forgot to sign his name in the message.
When you recognized the fraud in time and did not become a victim of it yourself, call the operator of the number from which the attempt was made to deceive you so that he takes action.
Phone and Internet
Very often, on the Internet, you may be asked to enter your phone number, ostensibly to confirm that you are a real person who actually orders this or that service, which is positioned as free. You should not do this, because by doing so your number is connected to some other expensive service, as a result of which a tidy sum starts being debited from your number every day. Until you notice that the money in the account quickly ran out, it may take some time, and the total damage will be significant.
In order not to become a victim of scammers, do not indicate your number on sites where paid services are offered, without first familiarizing yourself with the tariffs applicable to them. As a rule, a link to them is indicated somewhere in the corner in small print and, having passed through it, you will be unpleasantly amazed at the cost of an ordinary SMS, which you were asked to send to the short number indicated on the site. It can exceed the usual tariff by several hundred times.
