Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Regulators Warn of Surge in Data-Rich Phone Scams and Fake PayPal Calls in Germany

Police with consumer agencies urge reporting, call blocking in response to automated press‑1 schemes.

Overview

  • Monitoring services report callers increasingly arrive with personal details such as names, addresses and birthdates, which has led some victims to share bank data under pressure.
  • The Federal Network Agency warns of robocalls posing as PayPal that tell recipients to press a key, then route them to call centers and phishing links.
  • Complaint volumes have risen, and authorities advise not answering or returning unknown international numbers, blocking suspicious callers, and filing reports via official forms.
  • Lotto Mecklenburg‑Vorpommern says it never phones private customers to request sensitive data, as police in the state note a lack of formal complaints and ask victims to come forward.
  • Clever Dialer and tellows highlight recurring clusters from Düsseldorf landlines and Dutch mobile numbers, with published lists helping users identify frequently abused lines.