The aim of the new recommendations is to prevent the use of Finnish numbers in scams and to reduce future scam calls.
There is a desire in Finland to get rid of scam calls. Adobe Stock / AOP
Various scam calls and messages are a real nuisance. Criminals use the real telephone numbers of Finns to cheat, which makes it difficult to identify the cheat before answering the call.
In its press release, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom states that the falsification of caller numbers in fraudulent calls from abroad has been a significant problem in Finland in recent years.
– The purpose of the scam calls has been, among other things, to deceive the recipient of the call to give the scammers a remote access to the recipient’s computer or to make the online banking IDs available to the scammer, Traficom says.
The Central Criminal Police has estimated that in 2020 and 2021, Finns will have lost about 7.1 million euros in technical support for scam calls. Recently, scammers have also started to represent representatives of Finnish operators.
New order coming
Now Traficom has issued a new recommendation to operators to reduce scam calls and the use of Finnish numbers in scams. In Finland, operators are obliged to take care of the correctness of the numbers, but in the case of calls from abroad, it has not been possible to identify the caller in practice.
– The present recommendation provides guidelines and technical means to identify the caller and the right to use the number and thus prevent fraudulent calls from ending up for the recipient of the call, Traficom informs that preparations have been made in cooperation with the operators.
According to Traficom, a Finnish number can still be used to call Finland from abroad, but the new recommendation ensures that the telephone number of the number holder is not used for crimes.
According to Traficom, the introduction of measures to prevent fraudulent calls is voluntary for operators, but an order to be issued during 2022 will oblige them to do so.
– We believe that confidence in the fact that a call from a Finnish number is actually made from a Finnish telephone subscription can be restored by the measures of the recommendation. I believe that operators will make extensive use of these jointly defined means, although they will not yet be required to do so, says the development manager. Lauri Isotalo From Traficom’s Cyber Security Center.
Hook the handset to your ear
With incoming calls from new numbers, be careful. In the case of a scam call, answering it is not in itself dangerous, but you should not listen to explanations.
Specialist at the Cyber Security Center Juha Tretyakov said earlier that a scam call is usually identified by the fact that the caller does not speak Finnish.
Tretyakov’s simple instruction was to end the suspicious call.
– Even if it feels dull, the handset can be hit right in the ear of such a caller, Tretyakov said.
If you suspect you have been scammed and find that there is an unexpected outflow of funds from your account, contact your bank immediately. After that, it is worth reporting the matter to the police.