Hi OzB,
Recently I've been getting a number of phone calls from different mobile numbers; and when answered, starts with piano music and a lady speaking in Mandarin about Australia Post.
I'm not a mandarin speaker, and have no idea what she's on about. Does anyone else get these and any mandarin speakers able to interpret what is going on if they have received such a phone call?
Thanks!
PS. not sure if this is the right forum, but close enough?
Yes! But how does it operate I suppose is what I'm interested in. I do block, but it comes from different numbers every time.
I remember my friend saying it has something to do with your Visa or Passports.
Yes, same one over several days, blocked and hasn't happened again
If I hear anything that I couldn't understand, Robo voice, Mandarin speaker (Automatic voice) or Indian call centres, I will turn it off, block, reported as spam in Trucaller.
'Weve taken your wife or husband or child hostage, bring ransom to local post office now prease' 🤣
You misspelled a word there.
Correct, it should be 'We've'
And no comma between child and hostage. They can’t take my child hostage… I never had a hostage for them to take, let alone a child one…
I had a friend translate one that was from the "Chinese Embassy Australia". Pretty much said my visa had expired and I had to pay them to not be deported/have border force arrest me. Classic scam just in Chinese to target Chinese people.
The other permutations are:
The first part of the phone call is usually a pre-recorded message, and they'll ask you to punch 0 or 9 on the keypad to speak to a live person.
For people with Samsung Phones with Hiya integration, or for folks with Google Pixel phones make sure you switch on Spam protection as it can flag potentially spam callers.
Do not that it's not 100% foolproof because phone numbers can generally be spoofed.
My locals have been mixing it up with TNT and DHL as well…
I have a friend who is Chinese and says that he often gets threats via these robo calls that tell him what political party to vote for and that he is being watched to make sure he votes correctly and that his vote will be checked.
How would they check your friend's vote?
They can’t and wouldn’t. It’s more of a scare tactic.
Friend has lived in Australia almost all his life and knows they can’t do shit, but it’s worded to catch out people who are only new to living here or too old to know the difference.
Maybe they could mumble something about Huawei and TikTok. That seems to scare a lot of people on this website.
I have had these, a chinese speaking colleague once told me to press 9, i've done this a few times and found myself talking to a chinese speaker who usually just hangs up.
I've received these calls for the last year. Despite blocking the number, they continue to arrive with different numbers each time.
I pressed 9 like someone said above, and a Chinese speaker picked up! I just told them to stop calling me and hung up. They're probably going to call me every hour now.
Chinese scam targeting Chinese people. Just report, block and ignore.