For some time now, a wave of calls from numbers starting with the code +44 has been affecting many users in France. And for a particularly strange proposition.
When accepting a call, you have certainly been in this situation. If the name displayed matches a number in your contact list, no problem, you take the call. But what should you do when the number has not been recorded when it could be a very important call from a recruiter, your bank or even your child’s school?
In most cases, the call is not very important and is more like advertising or mail order sales. It happens that when responding to this type of call, a sales representative offers you to take out an ‘advantageous’ energy contract or that another pushes you to change mobile operator. In short, painful canvassing, but classic.
However, for some time now, many French users have been receiving calls from numbers starting with +44. You should know that this code refers to the British telephone network, in the same way that France uses +33, particularly when traveling abroad. Curious calls, especially when you have no connection with the United Kingdom.
And the mystery deepens even more if you pick up. Because at the other end of the line, an individual makes an offer that is surprising to say the least: a small paid job. Nothing complicated: it’s just a matter of watching a video, liking a message or even rating a hotel. Very simple tasks, all paid in cryptocurrency.
Obviously, this is a scam. Because if the first tasks requested are actually paid, the payments stop very quickly, once the scammers have gained the trust of their victims. This scam is not very new. Experts have already noted that this special kind of scam began more than a year ago. The new thing is that scammers are increasingly calling with British numbers.
Behind this vast network of fraud are in fact hiding large mafia groups based in South-East Asia specializing in “cyber slavery”: a mode of modern slavery where the people on the phone are themselves victims, the more often originating from India and Africa, used by mafia groups to defraud Westerners.
So be very vigilant at this time if you receive a call from numbers starting with +44: there is very little chance that it is King Charles III inviting you to the festivities. And even so, he will leave you a message!