How to Recognize a Scam Call and Protect Yourself

"Hello, we’re calling from the bank. We have just detected possible fraudulent activity linked to your account," announces a brisk young man’s voice in clear Estonian. "It is our duty as your bank to protect you as a valued customer. Your money is no longer at risk, but are you prepared to work with us to help uncover and stop the fraudsters?"

That is how a scam call might begin. And who wouldn’t want to help catch fraudsters? The caller may also appear to be a police officer or a healthcare worker (claiming that a close relative, who supposedly gave them your number, is in trouble), or someone from the electricity company (warning that your meter needs replacing because it is showing excessive usage), or an investment firm (offering a fantastic opportunity that is said to be highly profitable and practically risk-free), and so on.

Head of Business Continuity and Information Security at Holm Bank, Alland Parman, shares how to build habits that help protect against increasingly sophisticated fraud schemes.

Not long ago, it was a consolation that scammers were not fluent in the languages of smaller nations (such as Estonian), so most attempts reached us in a foreign language or in very poor Estonian. With the help of artificial intelligence, however, fraudsters have overcome this obstacle, and that means all of us are potential targets. I personally receive a couple of scam calls to my phone number each month, and more during peak periods.

It is impossible to give advice that would protect against every existing or future type of scam. There are, however, some general habits that can make us safer. Here are a few of my personal observations.

1. Save your contacts. I keep all important numbers stored in my phone. This way, when a call comes in, I usually know who is calling. If it is from an unknown number, I pause to consider whether I should answer at all. Of course, there are situations in life or certain professions where you must (for example, if you have listed your number on a sales advert or on a company website). But if I am not expecting a call from an unfamiliar number, the chances are quite high that it is either a salesperson or a fraudster.

2. Be cautious with messages. Scams via Messenger, WhatsApp, Snapchat and similar platforms are increasingly common. More often than one might expect, an account has been hijacked and the messages come not from an acquaintance but from a criminal. Depending on their aim, they may ask for sudden assistance, offer unexpected wealth, or something else entirely. I pay particular attention when a message is unusual or unexpected, checking carefully whether it really originates from the person it claims to. And if a “distant acquaintance” starts by asking, “Could you give me your phone number?”, I end the conversation immediately and remove them from my contacts. The likelihood of missing out on something important by doing so is extremely small.

3. Stay sceptical with unknown calls. If I do answer a call from an unknown number, I remind myself: I do not know who is on the other end, and I cannot verify what they say. It may well be a scam. Banks do not usually call customers out of the blue, only in situations such as a loan application in progress or overdue repayments. And in such cases, the discussion would not involve PIN codes, card numbers, or other confidential information. The police and other authorities do not call people without prior arrangement either. And if they did, nothing serious would happen if I did not take the call. I am under no obligation to answer unknown numbers, waste my time on them, or believe what I am told. If the matter is genuinely important, the caller will try again or use another way to reach me.

4. Decide in advance. I have already decided that I will not make purchasing, selling, or investment decisions during a phone call. That helps me end sales calls quickly. I have also decided that I will not give out any personal details over the phone unless I have previously agreed this with a trusted contact. Yes, I have given telephone interviews and answered calls from Statistics Estonia, but those were pre-arranged and verified.

5. Treat too much knowledge as a warning sign. The more a caller or sender seems to know about me, the more suspicious I become, especially if the source is unknown. I once thought that my modest life would not interest anyone, but today technology makes it easy and cheap to compile impressive amounts of data about anyone (personal ID number, address, family ties, workplace, professional contacts, biography, schoolmates, neighbours, and more). Fraudsters use this information to create credibility and press the right emotional buttons.

6. Resist demands. The more a caller or sender insists that I do something, visit a website, click a link, download and run software, the more cautious I become. I am under no obligation to follow such instructions, and doing so is often dangerous. Above all, never allow unknown software to be installed on your computer or mobile phone. That is effectively the same as someone asking, “May I put a camera in your bathroom?” or worse. Such actions often result in the theft of PIN codes, card numbers and personal data, loans taken out in your name, even the sale of your home and the loss of all your money.

Perhaps you have heard the cynical saying, “Fools and their money are soon parted.” I would not call myself a fool, but I too have once fallen victim to fraud and lost a small sum. At the time, nothing felt foolish, that feeling came only afterwards. It could have been much worse. I know the saying, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” but tempting offers are tempting precisely because they are tempting. I am still learning, better late than too late.

I do not know how skilled I will become at spotting fraud, but I have become more cautious, even suspicious, of calls and messages from unknown sources. I ask myself: how likely is it that a loved one has truly lost their phone and is desperately trying to reach me using a stranger’s handset? The probability is very small. If it really were so, they would probably call me three times in a row within a minute and also send a text message. A fraudster generally would not. So I do not answer such calls. Or if I do, and the caller claims to be “the bank”, “the police”, “the health service”, or some other “caring authority”, the conversation ends there and then.