In the last year, over 3.2 million Italians were victims of fraud or attempted fraud in the fixed or mobile telephony sector. The data comes from a survey conducted for Facile.it by the research institute mUp Research which estimated the overall damage at 731 million euros.
The channels most used by scammers and the few complaints
Continuing to scroll through the survey data, we read that the channels most used by scammers were, for both landline and mobile telephony, fake call centers (67% landline vs 44.2% mobile), fake emails (33% landline vs 32.6% mobile) and SMS (16.5% landline vs 25.6% mobile). For mobile telephony, in almost 1 in 4 cases, the scam or attempted fraud occurred via the most modern instant messaging apps. In the case of landline telephony, the average damage was 209 euros, 176 for mobile ones.
Unfortunately, more than 1 in 2 scammers (59.4%) did not report what happened. The reasons given were “because the economic damage was too low” (45.7%), because they felt naive (10.1%) and because they did not want to make what had happened known to family and friends (7.8%).
Identikit of the defrauded
Contrary to what one might think, it is the youngest and not the elderly who most frequently suffer a scam or attempted fraud in the mobile telephony sector; compared to a national average of 6%, the percentage reaches 8.7% in the 25-34 age group and even reaches 10.7% among 18-24 year olds. As regards landline telephony, however, those most affected are consumers aged between 35 and 44 (5.1% vs 3.2% at a national level).
Another interesting fact emerges by analyzing the level of education of the victims; among those with a university degree, the incidence is more than double the average.
How to recognize scams and how to defend yourself
To help consumers recognize scams and prevent them, Facile.it has drawn up a useful 5-point handbook:
- Never give cash to technicians (real or fake). One of the most common scams involves requests for cash payment by technicians who knock on the door of someone who has just requested the activation of a new telephone line. It is good to know that telecommunications companies never require payment for services on site, but manage everything centrally via bill, bank transfer or credit card.
- The unpaid bill and the migration code. If a mysterious telephone operator contacts you claiming that there are several unpaid bills, but you are sure otherwise, it is probably a scam. There are more and more frequent cases of fake telephone consultants who claim to call on behalf of the customer’s operator and, with the excuse of having to verify the correct payment of bills, ask for Iban and migration code, i.e. the code the user has to change telephone operator. During the call, pay attention to what you say because it is certainly recorded and, with a clever job of cutting your answers, you could discover that you have signed a new contract without knowing anything.
- The fake consultant. The typical scheme of this fraud begins with the user receiving a phone call from a person who presents himself as an employee of the telephone company with which the customer has the contract and who, without a valid reason, insists on arranging a meeting in person. Often it is the elderly who are targeted, with whom the fake consultant makes excessive use of anglicisms, technical jargon and nebulous information. The victim, confused by those words and enticed by the possibility of accessing advantageous offers, could fall for the scam and communicate their credit card number, or accept an appointment in person at their home. In this last case, the scammers will most likely show up with false documents and distract the owner to carry out thefts. Once again, never accept meetings of this type; telephone companies always prefer the remote channel.
- Numbers not to call back and messaging. A very common scam is linked to calls received from unknown numbers that we do not answer. We receive a phone call from an unknown number and, the moment we answer, the scammer cuts the line. The intention of those who carry out the fraud is precisely to push the prey to call back and, at that point, charge exorbitant costs for the call on his number. Also pay attention to the messages; if most of us are now accustomed to not trusting emails that arrive in the inbox and invite us to click on a link to enter private or payment data, the same pattern now travels with messages (traditional and instant) on mobile phones.
- Hidden costs and unsolicited services. In general, also be careful to carefully check the contract before signing the offer: there may be hidden costs that have not been explained (including the costs of sending or renting the modem or, again, the activation of paid services) and be careful to check the declared speed, the minimum guaranteed speed and the actual speed of the Internet connection.
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