"Your number has been flagged as suspicious and you are being charged for this call right now."
This is part of the English message that suspected fraudsters are now met with when they try to call one of Telia's customers from abroad.
We connect a voice response where fraudsters are met with a message that they have been exposed. This way, we can charge them a connection fee and bill them for the call cost, says Amanda Landqvist, who is responsible for Telia's fraud prevention.
Now it's our turn to get paid by the fraudsters when they try to deceive our customers.
Millions of calls
It's the so-called wangiri calls that Telia has targeted with the new protection.
The calls come from abroad and are cut off after just one signal. The idea is that the person who received the missed call will call back – and then get hit with a hefty fee that the fraudsters make money from.
At the same time, a warning message is also being introduced for customers who call back after a missed call.
Last year, Telia alone stopped 37 million wangiri calls – which the fraudsters will now have to pay for instead.
Hoping to deter
The money will be donated to the Crime Victim Support, but how large the sums will be remains to be seen. With tens of millions of fake calls every year, Telia hopes it will be noticeable for the fraudsters.
It's hard to make an assessment at present. It can be anything from a few ören to a few kronor per call, says Amanda Landqvist.
What we hope for is that it will have a deterrent effect so that they stop bothering our customers with this type of call.
There are different ways for criminals to try to swindle money via phone fraud from abroad.
One such way is spoofing, where the caller manipulates their number so that it appears to come from, for example, a Swedish bank.
Another way is wangiri calls – a term that comes from Japanese and means roughly "one signal, then hang up". The purpose is to get the called person to call back and be hit with high fees.
Tips to avoid being deceived:
Don't call back to unknown international numbers.
Never share passwords, bank details or other personal information over the phone unless you're absolutely sure.
Block phone numbers that you suspect are part of a scam.
If you feel unsure – hang up.
