Archiv des Autors: Christian Anton

Über Christian Anton

I completed my business studies with a focus on marketing and controlling at the University of Mannheim. At tellows I am responsible for the marketing and when I am not working in the office I relax with a good meal and with friends. Contact

(English) New update from our Android app

Schreibe eine Antwort
Facebooktwitterredditpinteresttumblrmail

Leider ist der Eintrag nur auf Amerikanisches Englisch verfügbar.

Dear tellows users,

Today we would like to talk about the new features of our Android app!

Since 2014, the year we launched it, our app has grown: we have moved to over 450,000 downloads, more than 6,400 evaluations and 200,000 subscribers. Every day we work hard to improve it and your advice and feedbacks have been fundamental.

Functionality at a glance

  • Immediately identify who is calling you:

We have improved Caller ID, so that the spam numbers are immediately detected through the tellows app; the tellows score will be always shown on the screen of our mobile phone and, in addition to the rating, you will also be able to find out the name of the caller, the type of call and from which location it phones. You will have all the information you need, so you can decide whether or not to answer calls!

  • Find any number and info on callers:

With over 180.000 reviews per day, you can find out who is bothering you in no time. Thanks to your reports, our database is constantly updated and over time it has become a big world family. New countries and new languages ​​are available in the application, no scammers or call centers around the globe will have a chance!

  • Evaluate and comment on phone numbers:

Commenting and evaluating is now easier and more immediate, in order that you can help us in our mission against telephone scams; just connect to your account and enter in the tellows world from all devices in a simple and free way. It is not required to leave a comment anymore when rating a number which makes it faster to evaluate unknown numbers. Your negative rated numbers are also on your personalized blacklist and can be blocked with premium.

  • Call barring and Blacklist customized with Premium:

In the Premium version, all dangerous numbers rated by you, are saved on your phone and can be blocked even in offline mode. All is possible thanks to the black list stored and updated locally and also use it without any advertising.

We could not be more proud of our product, but without your support and the trust that you give us every day, we would not have made the giant steps we have taken so far: you, our community tellows, are the beating heart of our app!

Facebooktwitteryoutubeinstagram

(English) „Missed Call“-Scams are on the rise again!

Schreibe eine Antwort
Facebooktwitterredditpinteresttumblrmail

Leider ist der Eintrag nur auf Amerikanisches Englisch verfügbar.

 

If you receive an incoming call from a foreign number, you should be very careful! Fraudsters from abroad use these calls to deceive their victims and steal their money. And although this type of scam isn´t completely new, thousands of consumers fall victim to them every year. Even in 2019, the business with Ping-Calls (referred to missed call scams) flourishes in various countries such as Australia, Germany, Japan and more. Lately we registered an increasing number of reports regarding the “Missed Call”-scam in the United Kingdom on our site tellows.co.uk. However, what is this “Missed Call”-scam and how can you protect yourself against it? This article will answer these questions. Let´s take a look!

Weiterlesen →

Facebooktwitteryoutubeinstagram

(English) Top Phone Numbers of January

Schreibe eine Antwort
Facebooktwitterredditpinteresttumblrmail

Leider ist der Eintrag nur auf Amerikanisches Englisch verfügbar.

Dear tellows fellows,

the first month of the year has passed. We’re very happy that all of our users have contributed to our platform by sharing useful information of various telephone numbers. Last month, we received more than 1200 ratings and comments in UK. The total number has increased by 200 ratings compared to December. In order to protect you from possible fraudsters and phone spammers, we would like to share some of the most searched numbers at tellows.co.uk. We’ve also added the type of callers and the name of companies, so you can see if the numbers are dangerous or not.
Weiterlesen →

Facebooktwitteryoutubeinstagram

(English) The New iPhone Update is Here!

Schreibe eine Antwort
Facebooktwitterredditpinteresttumblrmail

Leider ist der Eintrag nur auf Amerikanisches Englisch verfügbar.

Dear tellows fellows,

We are happy to announce that tellows has released a new update of our Caller ID & Block App for iPhone with brand new features! In the new version, it’s now even easier for you to protect yourself from nuisance calls. As you probably already know, the tellows app can help you to find information of telephone numbers all over the world. We have finally created new features, such as free real-time identification and automatic update of the caller ID, so you can enjoy even more benefits, free of charge! So which are the new advantages you can get after the new update? Check it out below!

  1. tellows Score Display on Incoming Calls

The so-called Lite version of the tellows protection, which is the free version where users won’t be charged at all, now offers automatic identification on any incoming calls. The tellows score will be displayed on the incoming call, indicating the potential risk of the call. The score 1 means that the number is trustworthy, whereas score above 7 refers to potential risk of the number. With this new feature, it’s even easier for users to decide whether they should pick up a call and whether the number is possibly dangerous or not.

  1. More scores – more details!

From now, your phone will not only identify dangerous calls. You will also benefit from information of positive rated numbers, such as trustworthy companies or service hotlines. The new app version will identify numbers from score 1 to 9 to provide you with more information for better security.


Weiterlesen →

Facebooktwitteryoutubeinstagram

New iPhone App: tellows Caller ID & Block – Now with Block Feature!

2 Antworten
Facebooktwitterredditpinteresttumblrmail

Watch out, Apple users: Today, we introduce you to our new app!

tellows Caller ID & Block!

With the release of iOS 10, it is finally possible to block calls! And we don’t want to withhold this feature from you any longer. We developed a new app that protects you even better from unwanted calls. Annoying spam calls that cost you time and nerves are now history.

To offer you the best protection ever, we equipped the tellows app with a special feature. Incoming calls can be identified with the tellows Caller ID & Block app, instantly. And to make sure you don’t even get disturbed by those calls, you can now block all spam calls.

Weiterlesen →

Facebooktwitteryoutubeinstagram

UK public service warning: cold callers offer fake IKEA shares

2 Antworten
Facebooktwitterredditpinteresttumblrmail

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau has been informed recently of a supposed investment scam aiming at potential investors. The alleged victims are told that IKEA, the world recognised swedish company known for their modern architectural designs of both appliances and furnitures, are due to float shares on the stock market and therefore potential investors should purchase IPO shares (Initial Public Offering) before the floatation.

In response, actionfraud and Ikea have themselves issued an article stating that this is false and there are no arrangements for Ikea to become publicly listed.

This described fraud comes under the umbrella of what is called ‚Boiler room Fraud.‘ This is when you receive contact from someone offering investment opportunities which often leads the caller requesting a ’seal the deal‘ payment by requesting bank account details over the phone. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) report approximately 5000 people a year contact them on suspicion that they have been subjected to investment fraud. Unfortunately, around 10% would have already issued funds to the criminals. In addition, the FCA warns that out of these victims who would have transferred money to the criminals, the probability that they will be contacted in the future by the the same operation or have their details sold to other fraudsters would be increased.

Have you received a call of this exact scenario or of a similar nature? We would like to hear from you. Let us know by commenting below OR by searching the phone number on tellows that was used to phone you and leave a comment there to assist others in their enquiry to a suspicious phone call!

We used www.financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com:

Floatation: Floating shares are shares of a public cooperation that are available for trading in the stock market
Initial Public Offering (IPO): The first price for which a company offers to sell stock in itself when it moves from private ownership to public trade.

We also acknowledge actionfraud.police.uk for their content published on the 13th of June: Beware of cold callers offering fraudulent sales of shares in IKEA.

Facebooktwitteryoutubeinstagram

New release by Ofcom: PPI most common unwanted call type

5 Antworten
Facebooktwitterredditpinteresttumblrmail

Mid May brought a new study published by Ofcom getting down to the nitty gritty extent of these nuisance calls. This study involved 926 participants who kept a diary to record all unwanted calls received on just their land-line over a 4 week period between 13th of January and the 9th of February 2014. Critical findings were accumulated such as the number, type of number, whether the number was identifiable or not, frequency and type of organisation making the phone call.

Here is what the survey revealed..
Weiterlesen →

Facebooktwitteryoutubeinstagram

tellows magazine for the UK – worthwhile information on nuisance calls and telephone scams

Schreibe eine Antwort
Facebooktwitterredditpinteresttumblrmail

Leider ist der Eintrag nur auf Amerikanisches Englisch verfügbar.

The tellows magazine is now here for download!

Based on information compiled from the tellows website, its blog and from concerned authorities in the UK, the tellows magazine provides the most important things you need to know in order to avoid being scammed over the phone.

How useful is this magazine to me?
You could be the next target victim of phone fraud. Even if you are registered with TPS, it does not spare you from the threat. In fact, 57% of those TPS-registered numbers are not satisfied since they still receive an average of 7 unsolicited calls per month, based on the UK Consumers‘ Association report.

Statistics from the tellows website also shows that Greater London receives the highest rate of unwanted calls, followed by the North West part and Yorkshire. This does not mean that other regions are not being targeted, rather, reports and complaints in tellows website are actually coming from all parts of the country.

That’s why it’s important for you to be aware of these scam methods and be proactive in guarding yourself and family against fraud.

tellows UK Top 10 scam methods
tellows has identified these top 10 scam methods based on the actual reports of users submitted to tellows website. These are: online payday loan scam, call back, job offer, fake telemarketer, spoofing, vishing, ppi, pc doctor scam, lottery and winning scam, pension liberation fraud.

One scheme would ask you to pay fees in advance so they can process your loan, PPI, pension, job and training application, or your winnings in a lottery or contest. Another kind would send out messages that sound like an emergency or would ring your phone incessantly just to make you call them back. While the last type would pretend to be calling from a valid number, or would use the name of a legit company and brand, as if offering their products and services.

Legal basics
The magazine also gives you an overview of the Data Protection Act and the three most important regulators and agencies involved in this area. Direct links on where you can send a complaint are provided, whether it is about an unwanted live telesales calls, automated marketing calls, silent or abandoned calls, or unwanted spam text message.

More on tellows
For an immediate, everyday protection, details about how the tellows website, its blog and smartphone app work can also be found in the magazine to solve your worries and doubts on unknown numbers.

Facebooktwitteryoutubeinstagram

Weekly Top 3: Updated Old Tricks

Schreibe eine Antwort
Facebooktwitterredditpinteresttumblrmail

Investing in new technology, developing smart ideas, innovating, outsourcing, call centers – the buzzwords of our business-minded con artists. They’re professionals and they know their stuff. 7 in 10 receive nuisance calls, texts and emails everyday, yet these large-scale scam operators are never penalized because apparently they are just “annoying” and not yet causing “substantial distress” to people.

You, as the target market of these fraudsters, should know better than their old tricks. Update yourself with these words of advice:

  • Don’t give any personal information to strangers or to businesses – remember, they should already know your details!
  • Ignore employment agencies asking for payment in advance
  • Check your bank and credit card statements regularly and let your bank know immediately if there are any entries you don’t recognise
  • Often, you can’t get lost money back, particularly if you have handed over cash. But you have more protection if you paid by credit card or a debit card.

For our weekly top 3, the approach of our scammers is always a hard sell. Strategies are aggressive and their tactics include cold calls and unsolicited pitches – as if they are really selling some products or services BUT actually no. They are disguised as telemarketers who just want to get your bank details or other personal info. Worse huh!

Weiterlesen →

Facebooktwitteryoutubeinstagram

It’s here! The brand new version of the tellows app for iPhone is finally available – and it’s on offer for the festive season!

Schreibe eine Antwort
Facebooktwitterredditpinteresttumblrmail

Hello loyal tellows members!

Our online community continues to grow and thanks to your input, the number of caller profiles we have in our database is rising; the total now stands at over 75,000! With this breadth of information, recognising callers is getting that bit easier every day, meaning you can protect yourself more and more easily against telephone tricksters. Hundreds of thousands of people are harassed by spam callers every day – the tellows app gives you the info you need to avoid this kind of annoyance.

Christmas Special!

Unwanted call statistics skyrocket in the festive season, quite probably because the callers are hoping that purse strings will be tied a little more loosely in the Yuletide spirit. Tele-spammers are looking for goodwill and gullibility. Fight back with the app! From now until Christmas Day, we’re offering the tellows app for £0.69 (a 60% discount!) in the App Store. Think of it as a Christmas present, from us to you.

Buy Now for only £0.69
Avaiable on iTunes

Weiterlesen →

Facebooktwitteryoutubeinstagram