Many Vodafone users report having received a call from a call center in Turin inviting them to change their phone rate: it's a scam
If you are a Vodafone user and you have received in recent days a call from a call center in Turin (phone code 011), most likely you have been the victim of a scam. In fact, in the last few days many customers of the operator have been contacted by a call center that presents itself as "Vodafone services" and wants to convince users to change the offer of their smartphone, not specifying, however, the name of the tariff.
The scam is very carefully engineered and starts from a true news: Vodafone has announced a remodulation of some offers with an increase in the monthly subscription from June 2019. The fake call center is contacting Vodafone customers warning them about the increase of their subscription and proposing at the same time new offers, not specifying, however, neither the name nor the telephone operator. Vodafone is aware of the scam and has reported the incident to the competent authorities, in the hope that the call center will be blocked. Here's what to do to defend yourself from the phone scam.
Fake call center scam: what's happening
As witnessed by the posts published by users on Twitter, for a few days a call center with a Turin area code (the phone numbers reported by users are many, a sign that this is a large-scale scam) has been calling Vodafone users to warn them about the remodulation and increase in the cost of their monthly subscription. This is a true fact, the phone operator has decided to increase the price of some of its offers. The call center, however, does not only warn users, but also tries to make them change their offer, not specifying, however, the name of the new tariff. In some cases, users have been offered the rates of other phone operators, despite the call center presenting itself as "Vodafone services".
The phone operator has been informed of the scam and has immediately filed a complaint with the relevant authorities and is trying to collect all the phone numbers of the call center. For this reason, it has also asked its customers for help in speeding up the research process.
How to defend yourself from phone scam
Call center operators are very bold and try very hard to snatch a "Yes" from the user in order to start the process of activating the offer. For this reason, the first advice we give you is to never say the word "Yes": it could be artfully manipulated by the fake call center. Another piece of advice is to never provide your personal data and documents over the phone, especially if the operator is pushy.
Finally, if you are receiving a lot of calls from a Turin number and you don't know who it is, block it immediately via the smartphone's functionality.