BEWARE of overseas telephone scammers.
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A number of recent and unwanted telephone calls being received warrants a scammer warning to all readers.
The most calls received have been from an overseas number that appears as +2052800212.
The callers, male and female, all have Indian sounding accents and imply they are from Microsoft, informing me I have a problem with my computer.
I know this is a scam and of course do not give these people any personal information, nor do I give them access to my computer.
I called Telstra to see if they could block this number. Unfortunately, the only advice given was that I needed to block ALL overseas calls to avoid this scammer. This is not practical and is disappointing, so my plan is to not answer any overseas call that shows this number.
The second part of this is about another overseas call, this time a person claims to be calling from Telstra, North Sydney, but the call information comes up as Overseas.
The caller informed me that Telstra had identified I had a computer problem and could I open my computer so that this problem could be fixed.
I was very rude to the caller and hung up.
There is in fact a Telstra Office at North Sydney.
They have advised me they are concerned and are looking into this latest overseas scammer.
My advice to readers is that you should immediately hang up if you get any call from the number above, or, from overseas, with the callers wanting to fix computers or wanting personal information.
_ JOHN RICH, Prospect.