In April, May and June, Telia stopped more than twelve million fraud attempts targeting Norwegian mobile customers, and the number of blocked wangiri calls doubled compared to the previous quarter.
The company clarifies this in a press release.
Fraud methods
Usurpation
Spoofing means that the original foreign phone number is “erased” and replaced with a Norwegian number. Often a number belonging to a well-known company or government actor will show up, and then the likelihood of the recipient answering the call and doing what the person on the other end is asking increases, precisely because the person on the question seems to call for a trusted actor.
Wangiri
Wangiri is a fraudulent method in which Norwegians are called by foreign numbers. After just a few rings, we hang up and the scammers make a lot of money from our callback. Older people are particularly vulnerable to this type of fraud, as they are happy to dutifully call back when they have a missed call.
Recent figures show that the company blocked a total of 12.4 million wangiri and spoof calls during the second quarter, compared to 8.6 million in the previous quarter.
– We are seeing an almost doubling in the number of wangiri calls this period, while the number of fraudulent calls has decreased, explains Øivind Kristiansen, fraud expert at Telia Norge in the press release.
– Our figures show that fraudsters are still very active, and wangiri in particular is a very common method of fraud. A rule of thumb is not to call back an unknown number, especially if it’s a foreign one. The increase in wangiri in the last quarter came almost exclusively from Sri Lanka, and we blocked more than four million calls by April, May and June, he continues.
Telia’s filters and solutions to prevent fraud stop a huge number of fraud attempts, but they don’t catch everything. Therefore, Telia advises Norwegian mobile customers to be cautious and on their guard.
– We live in a society based on trust, but it is important to be a little suspicious among other things, reminds Kristiansen. – It can be easy to let your guard down when you’re on vacation and relaxing, but from experience there are a lot of cheating attempts in the summer months too. Scammers don’t take vacations.
Telia’s advice to avoid fraud:
- Be careful with open networks and what you share while on them
- Do not call back if you see an unknown number from abroad called you
- Do not click on links you received from unknown numbers
- Do not download apps from Google Play and the App Store
- Never give your BankID password to anyone, not even the police
- Be critical – remember that no professional actor asks for personal information
- Use a password vault that both generates complex passwords and stores your passwords
- Always use two-factor authentication whenever possible
- Use a security service such as Telia Trygg
Number of blocked calls second quarter 2023 (first quarter 2023 in brackets):
A total of 12.4 million calls (8.6 million), broken down as follows:
Wangiri 9.2 million (4.8 million)
Impersonation 3.2 million (3.8 million)
Top 10 countries called from – second quarter 2023:
1.Sri Lanka 45%
2. Tunisia 15%
3. Afghanistan 12%
4. Burma 9%
5.Pakistan 5%
6. Somalia 5%
7. Canada 4%
8. United States 2%
9.Congo 2%
10. Sudan 2%
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