Every week, Estonians are swindled out of hundreds of thousands of euros as a result of scam calls. Unsurprisingly, this has made people even more cautious about calls from unfamiliar numbers. However, this has caused a lot of legitimate companies to struggle with recipients either immediately disconnecting their calls or simply berating them down the phone.

"Recently, it has become a very common problem that people are afraid to answer random unknown numbers. This is a particularly big problem with deliveries that arrive unexpectedly, such as gifts. Making these deliveries has become very difficult," said Andreas Suviste, CEO of Jet Express.

The courier company has had to reorganize the way it works and now asks those sending packages to call the recipient themselves and provide them with the courier company's phone number. However, even that does not always help.

"We usually make two or three attempts, and if we still can't deliver the package to the recipient, we return it to the sender," said Suviste.

Since the fall, Elektrilevi has faced challenges contacting its customers in around 20 percent of cases. Outbursts of unnecessary anger toward customer service representatives is bad enough, however the company also faces a much bigger problem.

"The time required to complete urgent tasks that need to be done tomorrow or the day after tomorrow has increased, but these tasks are important for the network to function properly," said Helje Sisask, head of Elektrilevi's service unit.

Scam callers most often claim to be representing Elektrilevi, Eesti Energia and various courier companies. However, even the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) have been imitated.

"When we call people on the phone to ask or clarify something, it is not uncommon for the phone to be hung up or for our officers to be literally sworn at, to the point that plainclothes police officers have had to go in uniform to identify themselves," said Elari Haugas, head of the PPA Northern Prefecture's Serious Crimes Department.

Haugas advised people to answer calls, but to hang up if they have the slightest suspicion the caller may be attempting to commit a scam. They should then return the call to the company who the person on the other end of the phone claimed to be representing via their official customer service number,

"If someone calls you at home on behalf of Elektrilevi, be sure to ask who they are and why they are coming (to your home) and what work they want to do. Our technicians always know why they are coming to your home to do work, and our technicians never ask for your PIN code," said Sisask.

"You never need to share your Smart-ID, personal identification code or anything other such details in order to receive a package; it is enough to ask who the sender is," added Suviste.

In November, fraudsters managed to swindle a record €4.4 million from Estonians.

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