Vodafone has issued a warning to Australians about three new convincing scams with scammers posing as law enforcement officers, clone Australian voices with AI and disguising calls with legitimate phone numbers.
Scammers are always trying to come up with new ways to fool you and win your trust before running their fraudulent schemes.
Vodafone has already been hard at work and has blocked more than 60.5 million scam calls and 43.8 million scam texts just this year.
So the telco knows what it’s talking about when it comes to spotting scams and the new most frightening scams to keep an eye out for.
These include:
AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE IMPERSONATION SCAM
A call comes in from someone pretending to be an Australian Federal Police officer investigating an arrest.
The scammer tells you your ID has been found on a suspect’s devices but to help you lower your guard they repeatedly say they won’t be asking you for information.
Instead they say they may send an email appearing to be from the AFP it says you’re welcome to visit a police station if you don’t believe them.
This elaborate scam is designed to build your trust so you would potentially share personal information and verify credit card and other financial details that they allegedly found on that suspect’s devices.
POLICE NUMBER SPOOFING
One of the most worrying tricks a scammer has in their criminal toolbox is the ability to manipulate caller ID so that an incoming call appears to be coming from a legitimate number – in this case a legitimate police phone number.
If you Google that number, you’ll find that it is actually a number used by police so it appears legitimate and that you’re talking to police.
From here the frauds to then attempts to extract personal and financial or cryptocurrency information.
This scam became a big enough problem for the Western Australian Police Force to issue a statement and warn people about it.
AI CRYPTO SCAM
In this scam people receive a call from an Australian number and talk to a person with an Australian accent and are told that there has been an unauthorised withdrawal from their cryptocurrency wallet.
The scammer is posing as a crypto support staffer and builds a sense of urgency with the target to pressure them into handing over details to secure their account.
But the catch is the voice is AI-generated and the number can be manipulated.
Vodafone has recommended three simple steps to stay scam safe:
Keep security credentials strictly to yourself: Never share passwords, one-time codes, account access, or crypto recovery phrases over the phone.
Never transfer money to a “safe” account: Don’t move money or cryptocurrency to a “safe” or “secure” account at a caller’s request. Legitimate organisations will not ask you to do this.
Hang up and verify independently: If you receive a suspicious call, hang up immediately and check the claim yourself. Use official channels to speak with someone and verify the request.
