CANBERRA: The call centres in India are reportedly targeting Queenslanders in the latest scam to separate them from their money.
The Courier Mail quoted Fraud Squad Detective Superintendent Brian Hay as saying that it is not clear whether the scammers had set up their own call centres or simply hired people to target these people.
Thousands of Queenslanders are believed to have been targeted by the cold-calling cons, including one called the " Microsoft scam".
Hay also said phone scammers were growing more sophisticated, they pretend to be conducting a survey in the first call, asking simple questions including which bank the homeowner uses.
A few days later, they reportedly made a second call, saying there is a problem with the homeowner's computer and required personal information.
"We get a lot of calls saying 'we didn't fall for it' but thought you should know. But when you start running into people in the flesh who have been targeted, you know it's massive," Hay said.
"The money these people are making out of it, they could set up their own call centre. Or they could be engaging existing call centres to do a script. The advice is simply to hang up," he added.
He also warned that phone scams operated by foreign criminals would become more common because international calls are getting cheaper.