The Wise Monkeys

We have now had 3 e-mails from people about the number 03 8844 0400. The most recent of which detailed the following:

I have had this number call me on my mobile for the last 4 days at least 3 times
a day. When I answer there is nothing on the end of the phone. When I ring back
(I make sure I use the work phone hehe) I get this message “This number is not
in service” in an American accent and it hangs up. Now I was rung from this
number on Friday and a guy saying he was from Optus wanting to speak to either
me or my husband (he knew both our names). He said his name was Tom. The number
is 03 8844 0400. Whats going on here???

Upon doing some research into this number I have found out that the line is actually owned by Primus Telecom
and was issued on the 25th of January 2002 - Which would lead me to believe that this is NOT Optus calling.

Always be careful not to give out any personal information over the phone without some valid steps of authentication (names of the person leasing the number is NOT enough as this information can be easily obtained). If you are unsure then ask for a number to contact them back on, and always record who you speak to.

Many thanks to John, Paula and Mandi for putting us onto this!

A few people have been reporting to us that they have had SMS’s / e-mails from someone claiming to be stuck in Nigeria who can’t return to the U.S. Would you believe they ALSO have a sick child! OMG! NIGHTMARE!

The number is 0112348056334234 and the e-mail addresses appear to be completely random so nothing there yet.

We have been hearing a lot about some supposed fraudulent transactions for dedicated servers purchases lately by the owner of www dot ecnhost dot com (link removed to avoid referals).

The owner of this business (Grant) allegedly signs up with his own credit card. Once this bounces he allegedly asks for a login to the billing system to process another card and then starts trying various credit cards until one works.

We are slowly fielding more information on this and would love to hear from you if you have been affected.

Also, Grant, We would love to hear from you regarding this.

update: It appears that this character has also tried selling a number of Dell laptops on ebay with the username sydneysamie. If you have been hit by Grant then we can provide you with everything you need to take to your local police station. Please use the contact form.

The 4 Wise Monkeys have been tracking now for way to long is the DC Marketing ‘Ring Once’ and hang up leaving a ‘Missed Call’ notification on your mobile phone hoping that you will be ‘socially engineered’ into returning the call. A full list of the numbers that you may receive these calls from is listed over on the number index page (click here for link). If you return the call which is to a local number you are billed accordingly by your mobile telephony provider at the standard rate. The recorded message you hear if you do call this number will prompt you to dial a 190x-xxx-xxx telephone number that you are then billed at premium rates that are disclosed in the recorded message that you have just heard.

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