Scam calls placed from outside of Malta starting with ‘+356 1’, ‘+356 2’ or ‘+356 8’ will start being blocked from November, the Malta Communications Authority said on Friday.
The communications watchdog said that 478,000 scam calls from such numbers were received from abroad in just two days - between September 3 and 4.
This extensive scam campaign targeting Maltese subscribers was likely facilitated with advanced automated systems to generate calls with a large amount of distinct spoofed Maltese numbers, MCA said.
Scam phone calls that manipulate the ‘caller ID’ (calling party’s number) in order to display phone numbers that are assigned to trusted people, known entities or businesses - such as a government department or local bank - have become a persistent threat.
Through manipulation of the caller ID (so-called “spoofing”), the scammers mask their real number to impersonate another caller and deceive the recipient.
Generally, scammers behind such calls request the recipient to share sensitive or personal information, such as passwords, account credentials or related login details, often leading to financial losses.
That is why, as of November 1, local network operators will have to activate technical measures to block calls from reaching Malta from abroad where the caller ID is a Maltese number starting with ‘+356 1’, ‘+356 2’ or ‘+356 8’.
In a statement, the MCA said additional filtering will also block calls with invalid or prohibited Maltese numbers.
These measures may also have an impact on users of Internet or cloud-based communications solutions who place calls with caller IDs starting with these prefixes.
MCA urged businesses that use internet or cloud-based solutions to place calls with a caller ID set to a Maltese number starting with ‘+356 1’, ‘+356 2’, or ‘+356 8’ to ensure that their solutions are provided by compliant service providers.
Otherwise, from November 1, all such calls towards Maltese numbers would be blocked.
Such businesses can verify whether their solution will be affected by placing a call towards +356 2400 2400. Testing is only necessary for solutions that use Maltese numbers starting with the prefix ‘+356 1’, ‘+356 2’, or ‘+356 8’ as the caller ID.
Users calling from a solution that will not be impacted will hear an announcement that their service provider is locally authorised with the MCA.
On the other hand, if the call fails to connect, or generates an announcement that the number is invalid or does not exist, such users should reach out to the provider of the respective internet or cloud-based communications solution to seek assistance.
More information here.
MCA can be contacted on 2133 6840, numbering@mca.org.mt or customercare@mca.org.mt