How do I recognize a fake phone call?

Impersonating someone else on the phone is a proven criminal’s way of extracting money or personal information. Be prepared and read below what you can do and what you should definitely not do.

A bank employee calls and says that the settings for internet banking are not correct. Or that the bank account has been blocked to a certain account. The employee can solve it immediately if you provide the account number and login details. Or sometimes you are asked to start internet banking to go through steps together.

Never go along with this. Personal details or login codes are strictly private. Official employees will never ask for this. If you get such a scammer on the phone, cut off the conversation. Don’t be fooled and just disconnect.

A Microsoft or Apple employee calls and informs them that there is something wrong with the computer. Don’t panic because the employee is there to solve this. Install a simple program and the employee will briefly take over the computer to repair the problems.

Do not do this. This method of solving computer problems exists. SeniorWeb also offers such an option. But that happens after you ask for help. It is of course very strange when companies of their own accord contact you and inform you that you have a computer problem.

In summary, phone calls from Microsoft, Apple or any other big company that come out of the blue are always suspicious. Never go into it.

Cell phones are also used for another well-known scam trick. A notification of a missed call from a foreign or foreign phone number appears on the screen. Whoever calls the number is the loser. The costs for calling are borne by the caller. So from you. Therefore: called by an unknown strange or foreign number? Don’t call back!

Sometimes an employee from the bank, your carrier, Microsoft or Apple actually calls to help with a problem. How do you check whether this is really the case? In the first place, such an employee will never demand personal data. If it does, just hang up.

Still in doubt? Ask for the name of the employee, the department where he works and the general number of the agency in question. You can check that number on the internet. Is it really a Rabobank or Microsoft number? Is the number correct? Then call back the general number and ask for the employee who spoke to you.