The Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) today (March 27) reminded members of the public again to stay alert to suspected fraudulent calls purporting to be made by the Communications Authority (CA) or OFCA.
A spokesman for OFCA said, "OFCA has received over 500 reports from members of the public on various kinds of suspected fraudulent calls purporting to be made by the CA or OFCA for over a month. Most of the calls were in the form of pre-recorded messages in either Cantonese or Putonghua claiming that the recipients' telephone services would be suspended because of anomalies with their telephone services. Most of the callers instructed the called parties to press a designated numeric key (e.g. '1' or '9') for further enquiries, and asked for the called parties' personal information. OFCA has already reported the matter to the Police.
"Notwithstanding the contents of the calls, we wish to reiterate once again that the CA and OFCA have never made and will not make such phone calls. In addition, members of the public should beware of calls from numbers with a '+' sign as a prefix displayed on mobile phones, which indicates that the calls originate from outside Hong Kong even though the calling numbers may be masqueraded as Hong Kong phone numbers."
The spokesman added, "We also urge members of the public to stay alert and report any suspected fraudulent calls to the Police, irrespective of whether a '+' sign is displayed as a prefix to the calling numbers. If they have any questions regarding the status of their telecommunications services, they should contact their telecommunications operators for details direct. Under no circumstances should they disclose their personal information in answering the calls."
More details about the alert to members of the public on suspected fraudulent calls purporting to be made by the CA or OFCA can be found at the following hyperlink: www.ofca.gov.hk/en/consumer_focus/education_corner/alerts/AllServices/reminder_to_members_of_the_public_on_suspected_fra/index.html.
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