Deutsche Telekom 's Call Check is intended to protect smartphone customers from fraudulent calls. Someone calls, the number is not stored in your personal address book. Regardless, you answer and engage in a conversation with a stranger. This is usually not a good idea.
Deutsche Telekom's so-called Call Check will automatically protect all customers from potentially fraudulent calls. If someone on the Telekom network receives a call from a number, whether domestic or foreign, that is recorded in a database as unreliable or fraudulent, the message "Caution, possible fraud!" will appear on the smartphone screen.
Vodafone has been running a similar warning system since May, and since then the spam detector has raised the alarm 50 million times, according to the company. Only 12% of calls are accepted, while for anonymous calls – that is, when no number appears on the screen – the acceptance rate is 60%.
The calls, which previously displayed the fraud alert, lasted less than 30 seconds in 90% of cases, according to Vodafone – which is very short, which is a good sign: Most of the people being called were probably alert and hung up quickly before the fraudster could make his rhetorical moves. The fraudulent calls came not only from Germany, but also frequently from the Netherlands, Austria, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Fraudsters are after bank details or passwords. “Fraudsters are often very skilled at building trust – whether through alleged competitions or surveys,” warns Marc Atkins, head of Vodafone Germany’s Cybersecurity Center. These methods are often used to obtain sensitive information such as bank details or passwords.
"Be cautious and don't give out personal data over the phone," warns the security expert.
See also: Europe: NVIDIA and Deutsche Telekom to create industrial AI cloud
The third established mobile provider in Germany, O2 Telefónica, has not yet activated such a fraud warning system for its customers.
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