IT&Telecom companies' questions and answers on scam calls - don't call back!
Many people in Sweden have recently received unknown phone calls from a phone number starting with the country code for Somalia +252 or with the country number +248 Seychelles without having any connection to these countries. The purpose of these so-called scam calls is likely to be fraudulent, according to the police. There is no charge for receiving or answering the call, but the caller risks paying hundreds of dollars for the call.
Here we answer some of the most frequently asked questions about scam calls, the responsibilities of Swedish telecom operators* and how you can protect yourself from being scammed on your phone.
As a customer, what should I do to avoid being defrauded by scam calls?
The simple answer is: never dial numbers you don't recognize - especially from international numbers, which invariably cost more to call than domestic numbers.
Since the possibilities to communicate with each other are greater than ever, we can be pretty sure not to miss anything important: if a real person wants to tell you something important, he or she will most likely try to reach you by other means (by leaving a message, sending a text message or an email for example) if you don't answer the phone.
What should I do if I have already called a 'scam' number?
If you have received a call back and suspect that you have been the victim of fraud, you should report it to the police.
You should also contact your operator, who can tell you the cost of your call.
Please note, however, that it is your responsibility as a customer to decide which calls you make, and to be aware that, for example, international calls have a higher cost - having a missed call in your phone does not mean you have to call this number.
In connection with the large number of scam calls recently, several operators have said that they will pass on the increased costs to affected customers - in other words, it is not certain that affected customers will have to pay for the calls themselves - but they are under no obligation to do so, but are doing so out of good will and concern for their customers.
The General Complaints Board is clear that it is the customer's responsibility to keep track of their subscription and pay for all calls made.
Are scam calls a new phenomenon?
No, this kind of fraud or attempted fraud has happened before, for example, in 2013 when the scam calls were mainly Congo country numbers.
However, the police say that this time the scale is larger than before, and the scam calls have also attracted a lot of media attention.
What is the scale - how many people have been affected by the scam calls?
We currently have no information on exactly how many people received the calls, but it is a very large number of calls.
If by "affected" we mean how many people actually called back to these numbers and thus incurred costs, the number is much smaller.
The police cannot yet say how many people have been affected.
What can operators do to stop scam calls?
Unfortunately, this is a recurring problem that operators cannot do much about. What operators can do is block certain phone numbers or number ranges that are known to be fraudulent so that they cannot be called. This is done to some extent, but is not very effective in the long term because the numbers can easily and continuously be replaced with new ones.
In particular, operators inform their customers to protect themselves from fraud attempts by never calling back to unknown numbers, especially from international numbers, which are inherently more expensive to call than domestic numbers.
The General Complaints Board is clear that it is the customer's responsibility to keep track of their subscription and pay for all calls made.
*Telecom operator or carrier - a company that provides telephone traffic and possibly other types of telecommunications and data traffic. Telecommunications operators include both companies that only carry calls and those that also provide subscriptions. For example Telia, Tre, Telenor.