Phone scammers are taking advantage of the internet problems facing northern suburbs residents.
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In recent months, a campaign to push for action on issues of poor connectivity in suburbs from Thirroul to Helensburgh has gained a lot of publicity.
So much that scammers appear to have latched onto it, making calls to residents in the affected suburbs claiming to be from Telstra.
Several residents have contacted the Facebook page 2508+ Disconnected stating they have received calls from scammers claiming to represent Telstra.
"'Nicole' just called me from 'Telstra' telling me that due to the troubles our area has had recently with internet connection we are all getting a discount for our home phone and internet," one resident wrote on Facebook.
"She went on for a while telling me what they were offering, then asked for confirmation of my date of birth and first name just like Telstra do in order to register.
"That raised a flag, so at the same time I was checking my emails and having not got a notification from Telstra I told her I didn't think she was from Telstra and hung up. I just got off the phone from the REAL Telstra and it was, in fact, a load of crap." Telstra Illawarra Area General Manager Trish Wilson said this was an example of the "opportunistic" nature of scammers.
"Often, cyber criminals attempt to deceive our customers by linking a false claim to an actual event or news story a customer may have read, seen or heard about in the media," Ms Wilson said.
"Any attempt to deceive our customers with false information over the telephone is very concerning for Telstra. The fact that most of these scam calls originate from overseas makes it difficult to prevent the calls from being made, so we are likely to see more of them in the future."
Ms Wilson said the web page telstra.com/verify had information designed to help people tell if the person on the phone was really from Telstra.
She recommended hanging up if there were concerns about a person's legitimacy and then calling back via the official contact details.
She also said not to share banking or credit card details and never give an unsolicited caller remote access to your computer.
Customers need to protect their personal information at all times and be particularly wary of telephone calls from numbers they don't recognise, Ms Wilson said.
