Savvy senior snuffs out scammer slinging sweet phone savings

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This article was published 22/02/2024 (566 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The voice on the other end of the telephone sounded like a Bell MTS employee offering a 40 per cent discount on Thomas Novak’s phone bill.

But Novak realized it was a scam when the caller asked him for the amount on his last phone bill.

He hung up, but others might fall for it.

“It was very convincing,” the 67-year-old said.

“He already had my full name, my phone number, my street address and he knew I also had a cellular phone. He also knew the date of my last billing for my land line.

Novak said he was “close” to giving the caller more information.

“But there were enough alarm bells going off,” he said. “I was beginning to look up my bill and that’s when I thought it isn’t legitimate.”

He said Bell MTS should be warning its customers.

“It’s so easy to be hacked or scammed,” he said.

According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre there were 41,111 victims of fraud across the country last year taken for a total of $554 million.

The centre said there were 62,365 reports of fraud in Canada last year.

“It’s something that is definitely becoming very present in today’s world, whether it is by social media or telephone,” Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Claude Chancy said.

“We tell people to hang up…. Just as technology has evolved, the way these fraud artists work has also progressed.”

“There were enough alarm bells going off … I was beginning to look up my bill and that’s when I thought it isn’t legitimate.”–Thomas Novak

Mathieu Manaigre, president and CEO of local computer support and services firm Avenir IT, which helps individuals and companies who have been hacked, said whether the scam is coming from your computer or phone, much of his advice is the same.

“Be paranoid all the way,” Manaigre said. “If you don’t know the person, be paranoid. Expect the worst.

“But this guy did great. He hung up and then he called MTS. That’s what you should do.”

Bell MTS spokeswoman Morgan Shipley said a recent analysis reported 60 per cent of Canadians had been targeted by a fraudulent scheme in 2023.

“Phone calls like the one described are not from Bell MTS,” Shipley said.

“We want our customers to know that Bell MTS will never contact you to ask for personal information unless we are responding to an inquiry made by the customer. To make sure you’re dealing with Bell, customers should always contact us directly.”

Shipley said customers who notice suspicious transactions on their account should call immediately.

“We have a team of dedicated experts that will be able to assist,” she said, adding if a customer has fallen victim to a scam they should also open a police report and call the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

As for how the scammer might have obtained Novak’s information, she said there are numerous methods, including identify theft, phishing emails, phone calls, text messages and lost phones and SIM cards.

Novak said Bell MTS is well aware of this particular scam; the first thing they asked was, “Is he offering 40 per cent?”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca