With the help of technical fiddling, scammers can make it look as if the call is coming from an authorized phone number – for example, the police, a bank or a public authority.
If you are called but are in doubt about whether the call is correct, you can hang up and call the company’s or authority’s main number and ask to be referred to the employee in question.
That way, you are sure to get the right person.
* Wangiri.
In this type of fraud, a call is made immediately after hanging up again before the recipient has time to pick up the phone. There are fees for calling the numbers that are typically foreign and associated with an answering machine, and therefore one can get a big bill by calling back to the unknown numbers.
Wangiri is Japanese and literally means “call and interrupt”.
You can avoid being scammed by this form by not calling back to foreign phone numbers you do not know.
* Phishing and smishing.
These are words for an approach in which scammers try to defraud people of their personal information. Smishing covers fraud via text messages, while phishing is via email.
In the messages or calls, fraudsters typically try to get people to hand over their credit card information or information to NemID with flattery, manipulation or threats.
You should not click on suspicious links or attachments in emails and text messages. You should not provide your personal information over the phone
No Danish authorities ask for your payment information or NemID via email and text message.
* False identity.
Some scammers use a fake identity on email, social media, dating sites or the like, where they then try to lure money out of people. If you start a love affair and the scammer uses that relationship to get money out of you, it is called “romance scam”.
There are also “Nigeria letters” where you are typically promised a larger amount of money if you pay a fee – but you never get the amount.
You can also be contacted by scammers who pretend to be from an authority or an acquaintance – such as a grandchild – who needs personal information or money.
Sources: police, TV 2, Telenor, Telmore
Source: The Nordic Page