Over the last couple of weeks Harden-Murrumburrah has been plagued with scam phone calls. These calls are almost invariably from overseas and have only one purpose: to separate you and some of your money. Some households have received 6 or more such calls, with calls being made as early as 7:30am.
Many Australians are registered with the Do Not Call Register and this hopefully stops nuisance calls from within Australia. It is, however, not beyond a scam caller to insist that you are not
registered with the Do Not Call Register even when you know you are.
You can register with or read about the Do Not Call Register at https://www.donotcall.gov.au/
The main aim of the Do Not Call Register is to prevent those irritating telemarketing calls, which are quite often made at the same time as the household’s evening meal is being served.
   According to the website, registered charities, social researchers and political parties are still allowed to call you after you are registered with the Do Not Call Register.
   Australia’s Do Not Call legislation applies to businesses within Australia that use
overseas-based telemarketers to help solicit sales and businesses based overseas making calls to Australian numbers. But of course this doesn’t stop the scammers.
Most of the recent calls to Harden-Murrumburrah residents are from male and female Asian accents – this is a fact, not a racist statement and these calls are presumably from overseas.
The scammer will usually tell his intended victim that their computer has been compromised or that it has a virus, which the scammer can fix for a fee. It is all a lie. Not too far into the conversation, the scammer will want your credit card details.
Do not under any circumstances give out these details, or you’ll find a considerable
fraudulent charge on your next statement.
Earlier this week one local business received such a scam call – the businessman advised the scammer that he did not own a computer. The scammer angrily insisted that the businessman did own a computer.
Harden-Murrumburrah residents are adopting a variety of responses to the scammers. Some intended victims try to shame them for making their calls, some people tell them off in no uncertain terms and (unfortunately) a few people may fall victim to their tricks. The best response is most probably to hang up on the scammer as they trot out their spiel.
Whatever your response, there is one thing you can be sure of: the scammers will call again.