Telstra scammer claims to be from Melbourne but can’t pronounce Australian city: Listen to the call

An aggressive but clueless scammer has proved he has no idea about Australia despite claiming to be calling from Melbourne.

Daily Mail Australia this week received a call from a worker claiming to be from Telstra.

But he became easily agitated when he didn’t know the name of the customer he was trying to scam – instantly proving he wasn’t legitimate.  

‘You don’t know your name? You don’t know your name? How many times should I tell you? How many times? I don’t have any name,’ he said.

‘I have only your phone number and your IP address register.

‘You don’t know your identity?’ 

An aggressive but clueless scammer struggled to pronounce Melbourne despite claiming to be calling from there (pictured is Flinders Street Station and the Yarra River)

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Asked where he was calling from, the man on the line claimed to be dialling from 242 Exhibition Street in Melbourne – the address of Telstra’s headquarters.

Unlike a typical resident working and living in Melbourne, he had trouble pronouncing the Victorian capital.

‘Melbrony,’ he said.

He had trouble when asked a second time to pronounce the city. 

‘Melbrony’.

Asked a third time, he tried ‘Melbrone.’

He then claimed to be calling about an internet protocol setting. 

‘The reason behind this call: we have been receiving lots of errors and warning reports about your IP address in our security server,’ he said.

Challenged on his name, he claimed he was Luis Fernandez, which is also the name of a French soccer player turned manager and actors from Venezuela and Spain (pictured is the Spanish actor in Madrid)

‘Those errors and warnings indicate that your IP address has been dropped down from private to public. Understand?

‘Which is supposed to be in private mode and you are totally unaware about this problem.

‘That is the reason that you are receiving this call today. Understand?

‘Did you make any kind of changes in your internet setting from your side?’

Challenged on his name, he claimed he was Luis Fernandez, which is also the name of a French soccer player turned manager and actors from Venezuela and Spain.

But he became aggressive and swore when asked to spell his name. 

‘Why should I spell my name? Are you my teacher or what?

‘You spell it out you motherf*****. You spell it out.

‘I’m rude guy, yeah. I cannot spell my name. What do you think of me? 

‘You a***hole.’

The scammer incorrectly spelt the name of who he was claiming to be. 

‘L-U-I-S F-E-R-N-A-N-D-E-N-Z.’

‘ShalI I spell it again, motherf*****?’ 

He then hung up.

Telephone scams were the most common in 2021 with 50 per cent of fraud occurring this way, an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report revealed.

Authorities received 144,603 reports with $100million reported lost.

This was significantly more than the text message method with 67,180 reports of fraud and $10million reported stolen, making up 23 per cent of losses.

Email scams comprised 14 per cent of scams with 40,186 reports $48 million reported lost, compared with 4 per cent for internet scams and 4 per cent via social networking sites.

Asked where he was calling from, the man on the line claimed to be calling from 242 Exhibition Street in Melbourne at Telstra’s headquarters (pictured is signage at a Sydney store)