Blog

It’s the Unknown Caller again. Or my favorite, the Not In Service caller.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is a government body which tasks include regulating these very difficult to regulate unsolicited calls.

First, it’s good to understand exactly why they are calling you – here are the most common reasons:

1. Legitimately trying to sell you a service or product. Maybe it’s insurance, maybe it’s a new appliance… sometimes these are companies with whom you have a prior relationship. More often, they’ve simply purchased a list – if they are selling auto insurance, for example, they procure lists of new auto purchasers.
2. Lead generation. These companies are calling to fill their database with additional data points besides your name and phone number. They may use a survey to get more information out of you – and then they attach that information and sell your name, over and over, to people interested in reaching your particular demographic.
3. Actual hacking. Maybe they are trying to get your TFN, credit card information, or simply want to confirm that the phone number they have is a “live” one.

As long as autodialing and “robo-calls” are so inexpensive, billions of calls will continue to occur every year – so how can you protect yourself and put a stop (or at least a slow-down) in the calls you may be receiving every day?

1. If you sign up for something online (especially for something free – a report or article), there is often a “terms and conditions” clause that allows that company to share your data with their “trusted partners.”
2. Watch for pre-checked or enticingly well-placed boxes that indicate a willingness to have your data shared with other companies. You’ll find these on everything from hotel check in forms to online registrations.
3. Add your name to the Do Not Call register. (LINK: https://www.donotcall.gov.au/) Only about 1 in 5 mobile phone numbers are on the registry, so get yours added today. While it won’t stop all calls, it should stem the tide a bit.
4. Block the caller. If you are getting repeated calls from one number, block it. Again, this is not 100% effective, as phone scammers will call from various phone numbers or, better yet, spoof the first several digits of your number – or even make it look like you are calling yourself!
5. Don’t hang up. Once you’ve answered the call, keep calm and ask to be removed from their list. Legally, they are not allowed to call you back. If they do – file a complaint with the ACMA. (LINK: https://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/ACMAi/Complaints )

Stop putting up with annoying, unsolicited calls that waste your time! And if you are ready to stop putting up with system downtime and protect your computer from unwanted hacks – check out Blutone Technologies My Personal Helpdesk and get the service you need to secure your devices. (LINK: https://www.blutonetech.com.au/mph

Apollo, a sales intelligence data aggregator and analytics service, alerted customers last week to a massive breach – more than 200 million contacts were exposed along with 9 BILLION data points.

What does this mean to you? Well, even if you were not directly involved with Apollo, you very well may be on the list of one of Apollo’s 500+ client firms. Much of this data is similar or identical to LinkedIn and Salesforce data.

What should you do? You may never know if you were on one of these lists, but the depth of data exposed means that scammers can come up with very targeted messages based on the information they were able to glean from the dozens of data points associated with each record.

It’s always important to keep an eye out for scam messages, but this data exposure makes it even more critical. You may well get a message that looks very legitimate and seems to “know” a great deal about you and your business. Do NOT respond to any requests for data, password changes, etc., unless you know for certain these are legitimate requests.

If you haven’t already engaged a 24/7 service to keep your systems safe from scammers, consider what Blutone Technologies has to offer. From on-going remote security to concierge computer services, we have everything you need to protect yourself and your customers. (add link here)