Beware of calls

Criminals lure you into a trap with “Paypal” calls

Be careful with calls that claim to be from PayPal.(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

Brazen telephone fraudsters are currently up to no good again. The criminals pretend to be calling on behalf of the payment service Paypal and try to lure gullible people into a trap.

The cell phone rings, an Austrian cell phone number appears on the display and a voice message on the other end tries to make you believe that the Paypal payment service wants to debit 999 euros from your account. Many Tyroleans are currently experiencing this scenario on a daily basis.

I ordered a cell phone on the Internet for 350 euros and at first thought that Paypal wanted to debit too much.

Ein Betroffener

Tyroleans targeted by fraudsters
The callers are asked to press a number to authorize or cancel the payment. "I ordered a cell phone online for 350 euros and thought at first that PayPal was trying to debit too much. I panicked a little," recalls a 42-year-old Tyrolean. But he reacted correctly. He hung up immediately.

Hang up and block the number
"The calls are phishing attempts aimed at taking money out of people's pockets," says the AK.

If the caller actually presses a number, they are connected to a real caller who then engages the victim in a conversation and tries to spy out access data to their PayPal account. At best, you should block the number immediately!