Proximus informs us that it is being flooded today with reports of suspicious telephone calls. People are being called by someone pretending to be an employee of the federal police, banks or other authorities. The numbers used are both mobile and landline numbers. NEVER give out information about your bank details, identity card, national insurance number over the phone.
In an automated message you are persuaded to update your personal details urgently. You are asked to press a button to directly contact the police or an employee who can immediately update your data. In both cases, a whole series of data is requested: your national registration number, the number of your identity card, your name, address and telephone number. It seems that the sole purpose of this call is to obtain as much information from you as possible so that it can then be used elsewhere.
Block the number?
The call comes from a spoofed phone number: this means that the number you see is not the real number that is contacting you. Therefore, there is little point in blocking this number. If the number is used by a customer in Belgium, he/she will not be aware of the calls made on his/her behalf.
Proximus will try to identify as many of these calls as possible and request the operators involved to stop this traffic immediately or block it on their own network where possible.
Are you receiving calls or messages from an unknown number? Always be careful
Always be critical towards the caller if they ask for private information. Never give out your details just like that.
It is quite common to receive a call from an unknown number (mistake, commercial calls, telemarketing, etc.) but how do you distinguish these calls from other, more dangerous calls, which are only out to manipulate or cheat you? Read more on Safeonweb.
Have you been scammed?
- Did you receive a suspicious phone call? Report it to the FPS Economy via meldpunt.belgie.be.
- Contact your bank and/or Card Stop on 078 170 170 (+32 78 170 170 from abroad) if you have passed on bank details, money is disappearing from your bank account or if you have transferred money to a scammer. In this way, any fraudulent transactions can be blocked.
