(August 30, 2019) – After Telus customers were impacted by an email outage, they now are being targeted by fraudsters impersonating Telus employees. Global News reported that Telus customers have complained about fraudulent calls after Telus informed their customers about compensation for the inconvenience experienced due to the outage.
Telus customers were impacted by a major email outage starting August 15. The company informed that the outage was caused by hardware issues at a Telus facility via social media. Some customers could not access their email accounts for days. Thereafter, impacted people have been notified about compensation by Telus.
This situation was quickly exploited by scammers. The fraudsters called the impacted Telus customers and impersonated a company representative, hoping to take advantage of this event and the people who were severely constrained for days due to the outage.
According to Global News, the fraudsters referred to a Telus email which added legitimacy to the scam. But then, they asked for access to the customer’s computer and for money – both are red flags for consumers. In this situation, consumers are encouraged to confirm the request independently with the corresponding company.
People who have experienced similar incidents should report the scam to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, their local police, and Telus.
