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A lot of people are seeing weird phone numbers in their call logs right now: »This is a message from the Federal Police Department«
Photo: via www.imago-images.de / imago images/MiS
A wave of spam calls has been spilling over Germany for several weeks.
If the scammer is targeted, their cell phone will ring several times a day.
A German mobile phone number or landline number is shown on the display, and a computer voice speaks at the other end of the line, apparently always in English: “This is a message from the Federal Police Department”.
A message from the federal police is said to be waiting, announces the voice from the tape and asks you to press the 1 key.
Anyone who follows the request will be connected.
The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) warns that the fraudsters then try to steal either personal data or money.
As a "Europol scam," the calls there have been an issue for several weeks.
The name comes from the fact that the spam callers already pretended to be calling from the European police authority Europol, Interpol or even the BKA itself.
thousands of complaints
The Federal Network Agency has already received 12,470 complaints about such calls with automatic announcements, as the authority explained to SPIEGEL.
The complaints received by the Bonn office are likely to be only a fraction of the spam wave; in the past few weeks, reports of the scam have piled up on social networks.
After spam SMS in particular were sent last year, calls with computer voices seem to be causing trouble this year.
Particularly insidious: those affected cannot distinguish the annoying callers from real ones at first glance, because the scammers are constantly calling from new, regular German numbers.
"A different number was named for almost every complaint," says the Federal Network Agency.
The fraudsters hijack the displayed phone numbers through so-called »spoofing«.
A telephone number that actually does not belong to the fraudsters appears on the display of those affected.
Investigations by the Federal Network Agency have shown that the numbers displayed are "manipulated numbers," the agency said.
The fraudsters have even hijacked the central phone number of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).
The hotline there was then confronted with a wave of calls back from citizens who were surprised to have been called by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
"The BfV never asks you to disclose personal data on the phone," the authority warned of the scam in early April.
"Just hang up," recommends the BfV.
Traces lead to foreign networks
The Federal Network Agency has determined that "the calls came from foreign networks, such as India, Romania or Spain to Germany," according to the authority.
However, that does not mean that the scammers are actually calling from there.
Rather, it indicates that the calls would be routed across several network borders - "probably to further conceal the traces and make clarification more difficult," the Federal Network Agency told SPIEGEL.
That's why the authorities can't stop the spam wave either, the authority says.
A new regulation could at least soon ensure that scammers can no longer pretend that they are calling from a German cell phone number.
According to the Federal Network Agency, from December sender numbers from foreign networks would be anonymized and the network entry point would be marked.
This immediately makes the calls more suspicious because they no longer look like they are coming from Germany.
Exceptions therefore only apply to calls from mobile phones via international roaming.
It remains unclear where those affected got the phone number of their potential victims.
It would be obvious that the criminals either collected the numbers from one of the various leaks circulating in relevant forums, or that they simply tried out masses of numbers using software.
How victims can protect themselves
The BKA recommends simply hanging up on spam calls.
"Do not follow the caller's requests, do not allow yourself to be involved in a conversation or put yourself under pressure," the authority said.
Those affected should file a criminal complaint with the local police station and independently research the telephone number of the station.
"Under no circumstances should you use the callback button," said the BKA.
If you want to stem the flood of calls at least a little, you can also block the phone numbers displayed with your phone.
Depending on the phone model, this works in just a few steps via the call list on the mobile or landline phone.
Blocked phone numbers can no longer make calls to the end device, but the block also means that authentic calls from this phone number can no longer get through.
Those who take this measure should ensure that they do not inadvertently block actual contacts or important numbers from which real calls are expected.