Aussies scammed by their telcos to update their phone

There is a new scam going around, not from an Indian call centre (surprise, surprise), where this time it is by one of the ‘Big Three’ Australian telecommunications carriers, that being Telstra, Optus or Vodafone

Sales staff within the telco are telling their customers that their phone is not a 4G (or LTE) one, where the customer must update it to a new one or the service will be cut off.

They are saying this to people who have a few years old flagship Samsung or other branded smartphones, even the U.S’s favourite that being Huawei.

In verbal conversations, they are convincing the user that the phone being used is not a 4G one, where they must update to a new model if they want their service to continue.

For example Samsung’s Galaxy S series smartphone is its flagship model, where in Australia 4G / LTE was rolled out in 2011/2012, coinciding with that brand’s first Galaxy 'S' model.

In the Apple ecosphere, the iPhone 5 was Apple’s first 4G capable smartphone.

To see if your smartphone or even newish flip phone has been communicating on 4G frequencies,  a good resource is gsmarena.com.

If you have been ‘forced’ or lied to or enticed in order to update your existing smartphone to a ‘new’ 4G one, then legal advice should be sought, including communications with the TIO (Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman).