Spark sets up hotline as scam calls continue

The Company Formerly Known as Telecom has set up a Scam Hotline after receiving further reports from some of its customers about phone contact by fraudsters claiming to be from Spark.

The fraudsters, whom the company first warned about on September 3, appear to have become more aggressive in recent days. They have reportedly told customers that their Spark services will be cut off due to security issues unless they change their settings or clean up their computers.  The customers are then directed to a website where they are asked to download some software, which the fraudsters have branded as Spark.

Customers are also being asked by the caller to give remote access to their computer, provide personal banking information, and leave their phone off the hook for three days following the ‘setting change’ as part of this scam. Spark understands that in some instances the fraudsters are giving customers a made-up “employee number” to verify their identity.

Spark Manager Channel Operations, Richard Harrison, said that it’s vitally important that customers do not visit the fraudulent webpage, or provide any personal banking information.  If they have any doubts about a phone call’s legitimacy, they should end the call, and ring Spark’s new Scam Helpline, on 123 option 9, to check.

“These fraudsters appear to be actively monitoring our activity and copying our methods of communication, so we know it can be difficult for customers to tell the different between genuine calls and fake ones.

“The most important thing to remember is that we will never ring customers out of the blue and ask them for any form of personal information – particularly bank details.  We will only ask you for personal information if you call us.  If you receive a call from someone claiming to be from Spark who asks you to enter your bank details, then you should end the call and contact us on 123, Option 9 to let us know.

“Anyone who suspects they have been the victim of this scam and who has passed on bank account details or logged into online banking while on one of these calls, should contact their bank immediately.”

Mr Harrison assured customers that the fraudsters do not have access to Spark’s systems.  He said that Spark was also working to inform its customers of the scam through digital channels.

How can you tell if a call is genuine?

"While we do make service calls from time to time, we would never ask customers to give us their banking details, and the only webpage we’d ever direct them to is ours – spark.co.nz," spokeswoman Lucy Fullarton tells NBR.

"We would also never ask for a customer’s MySpark password if we’d called them out of the blue –the only time we’d ask for personal information (to verify their account) is if they called us about a problem – ie it would be customer-led."