Fake numbers may be used for scam calls.
According to Traficom’s cyber security center, phone numbers starting with +35847 and +35848 can be immediately identified as fake. Illustration picture. Miia Sirén
Fake phone numbers may be used for phishing and other scam calls.
Unknown callers should always be treated with caution, but when can you almost certainly identify a phone number as fake?
Mobile phone numbers in Finland always start with 04 or 050.
The most familiar variations of 04 numbers are telephone numbers starting with 040, 044 and 045, but the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom’s cyber security center also grants other 3-5 digit area codes for use by telecommunications companies.
For example, 041 and 04944 are used by DNA and 0435 and 0437 by Finnish Separate Networks. You can find a list of these numbers From Traficom’s website.
On the other hand, numbers starting with 047 and 048 are not used at all in Finland. Calls that appear to come from numbers beginning with +35847 and +35848 with the Finnish country code are immediately recognized as fakes from abroad, says Traficom’s cyber security center on Twitter.
Calls from these numbers should not be answered. If you want, you can also save them with the name “Don’t answer”, for example, so that you know immediately not to answer at the latest.