Telephone fraud: How to protect yourself from scam calls

Fraudulent calls are currently spreading, purporting to be from Interpol or Europol and designed to obtain personal data or money. The scammers are so sophisticated that they can even mislead suspicious people. The best protection against these scams is to be aware of the scammers' strategies. In this FAQ, we therefore clarify the most important questions about scam calls: What is their actual aim? How can you recognize them and protect yourself against them? And what can you do if you are the victim of a telephone scam?

What are scam calls? And how do they work?

Basically, scam calls are telephone calls that are intended to defraud the recipient of the call. The aim of the scammers can be very different, but they often want to obtain personal data or money. They sometimes use perfidious scams, which we explain in the following section of the FAQ.

To make these scams work, the fraudsters try to make the calls appear as legitimate as possible. To do this, they use so-called "caller ID spoofing". Put simply, the caller's real telephone number is disguised and another mobile or landline number is displayed instead. This makes a caller from abroad appear as if they have a German telephone number. In some cases, numbers are also displayed that are intended to convey legitimacy, for example the numbers of local police stations. At the same time, voices are distorted or deepfaked so that you might hear a familiar voice - even though someone completely different is on the other end of the line.

What types of scam calls are there?

One of the best-known scams is the grandchild trick. Fraudsters specifically call people from the telephone directory, for example, whose first names sound particularly old. They pretend to be grandchildren and usually ask for money quite immediately, for example for outstanding rent or medical treatment. This story is made up, of course.

However, the grandchild trick has evolved in the meantime and is adapted to the victim. The fraudsters often pretend to be nieces, sons or even ambulance or hospital staff and demand several thousand euros for a life-saving operation, for example.

On the other hand, the scam is also increasingly being carried out via WhatsApp. The fraudster writes to people under the pretext that the family member has a new cell phone number. In this case too, the fraudster quickly asks for money. He claims that he cannot make calls because he does not have time to explain things at the moment. All these stories are also fictitious.

Tech support scams have also been around for years. This involves a fraudster calling and pretending to be a Microsoft employee, for example. He claims that a defect or virus has been detected on your computer. However, they can fix it for a (license) fee. Alternatively, the fraudster connects to your computer via remote desktop, logs into your online banking without you noticing and steals all your savings.

There are also an increasing number of calls from fraudsters pretending to be employees of Interpol or Europol. They either demand money directly for fines or deposits to be paid immediately, or they play tape announcements designed to persuade the victim to tap a number on the phone's dial pad. This results in a connection being set up to a foreign number, which can result in enormous costs.

The BSI also warns against deepfakes. This involves imitating a voice using either text-to-speech or voice conversion. For example, you could receive a call from a well-known presenter telling you that you have won something without the person in question knowing anything about it.

This is just a small selection of common scams. Our colleague Markus Will has taken a closer look at the strategies used by scam callers and compiled them in a recommended guide: Recognizing telephone scams and avoiding deception: How to protect yourself.

How do I recognize scam calls? And how can I protect myself?

As sophisticated as telephone scammers can sometimes be, they are often easy to unmask. If you are alert, you can quickly recognize a scam call. Simply ask yourself the following questions:

In addition, there are some guidelines that you should always follow to protect yourself from a phone scam:

If you follow these pointers, you should be on the safe side yourself. To protect not only yourself but also others, please inform your friends and family about such scams. Unfortunately, less computer-savvy people in particular are still frequently victims of scam calls.

What do I do if I recognize a scam call?

If you notice that a call is a scam, hang up immediately. As polite as the caller may be, end the call immediately so as not to give the caller any more opportunities to carry out their scam.

Fortunately, if you hang up immediately, you don't have to worry about being scammed. As long as you have not given the caller any personal data, valuables or access to your computer, you will not suffer any damage.

There are two things you can do now: Firstly, you can report the caller. We explain how this works in the following section.

Secondly, you can block the caller's telephone number. Due to so-called "caller ID spoofing", fraudsters can use a different number at any time, which is why blocking is not always successful. However, it is always worth a try. We explain exactly how phone number blocking works in detail in these two guides:

Weitere Read tips on how you can technically protect yourself against scam calls in this guide.

Where can I report a scam call?

In addition to blocking a call, you can also report it to various authorities. The first port of call is your local police station or the online police station. Even if you have not been the victim of fraud, you can report the caller. This may not always lead to successful proceedings or even a conviction. However, the complaints are very helpful in limiting the problem of scam calls. This is because the police cannot investigate (attempted) fraud without a complaint. If you would like to file a complaint online, you will find an overview page of the BKA with links to the online police stations responsible for you.

You can also report the caller to the Federal Network Agency. They will investigate the case and, if necessary, block the number used or even the fraudster behind it. You can report the scam call to the Federal Network Agency here.

Finally, there are various websites where users can discuss the reliability of telephone numbers. Here you can report your experience with the scam call and thus protect other people from being scammed.

What can I do if I am the victim of a telephone scam?

The most important thing to remember about a phone scam is that you should not be ashamed to talk about it. Telephone scammers have become so perfidious in recent years that even suspicious people are deceived. You should therefore have no qualms about informing other people about the incident.

If the caller was after your money, inform your bank or credit card company immediately that you have been the victim of fraud. The bank may be able to stop suspicious transactions in your bank account or cancel bookings.

If you have passed on information about bank or credit cards, online banking, ID cards, SIM cards or similar, call 116 116 and have your cards blocked there. This way, no one can withdraw money or misuse your ID without authorization.

If you have been the victim of a scam call, you should also inform the local police. File a report there and give the officers as much information about the caller as possible. Also make a memory log of the call so that you can remember details later.

Depending on which scam you have fallen victim to, you should definitely take some additional precautions:

If you need further help, you can contact the association Der Weiße Ring e.V.. This organization helps victims of fraud and crime on the White Ring information portal or by calling the toll-free number 116 006.

A general note and a request at the end: We have mainly talked about fraudulent calls in this FAQ, as they are still the most widespread. However, similar scams to those on the phone are increasingly being perpetrated via other channels, such as text messages, WhatsApp or social media. However, if you are vigilant and ask yourself the questions we have described above about telephone scams, you should be on the safe side.

Finally, we ask that you also inform your friends and family about these scams. Tell them about the scams or send them links to articles like this one. The more people know about the scam calls, the less of a target the scammers will have.

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