Why Am I Getting Calls From Countries Like Burundi, Malawi, Pakistan, Russia etc.?
Well, first of all, it’s none of your fault! In all probability someone is trying to trick you and steal your money. If you get calls from phone numbers beginning with country codes of Burundi (+257), Malawi (+265), Pakistan (+92), Russia (+7), Nigeria (+234), Tunisia (+216), Belarus (+375) etc.; do not pick such calls if the number is unknown to you. These calls are part of a scam that has been in existence since early 2000s. The scam is said to be originated in Japan and it used to be called Wangiri. The word wangiri is Japanese means one ring and cut. And this is exactly what the scammers do.
How does the One Ring Scam Work?
The scammer will hire an international premium rate number (IPRN) from a local phone company. After this, the scammer will give you one ring and then disconnect the call. You will think that you missed an important call (that too a call from foreign country! it must be important! –that’s how a lot of people think). So, you will call back on the same number and your call will be taken. Usually, nobody will talk to you from the other side and you’ll keep on saying something like “hello, hello, hello, is anybody there?!“. Eventually, receiving no answer, you will get frustrated and hit the disconnect button on your mobile phone. However, by then you would have lost quite a bit of money. Sometimes, these scam number will redirect your call to other very expensive numbers which offer adult content. The longer you stay on call, the higher you’ll be charged. To keep you on call for longer period, please-hold-the-line music could also be played until you get frustrated and cut the call yourself. In addition to the missed calls, you may also receive SMS/WhatsApp/Email that would ask you to “please urgently call back” on a given (fraud) number. You call and you lose money!
Why was Money Deducted from My Phone Balance?
After the call, when you will check your prepaid phone balance, you will realize that you have lost a large sum of money for making an international call. You might be wondering why do people make such one ring call scams? What benefit do they get out of it? Well, apparently, these scammers get their commission from the phone companies whose premium rate number they use to trick you. They may get up to $1 for every incoming call! Hundreds of thousands of people get tricked everyday; so you can imagine the kind of easy money scammers are making. It is a nexus between individuals and some phone companies in Africa and countries of erstwhile USSR.
Can You Get Your Money Back?
Unfortunately not. You can not get the money back as it is already charged for the call that you made yourself. Technically, the scammers are not offenders in this case. They simply offer you a bait and you take it. You make the call in response to the missed call on your own will. So, the phone networks are legally allowed to collect the charges from you.
How to Avoid Getting Scammed by One Ring Scammers?
There are a few things that you can do to avoid getting trapped in such scams. Here are some suggestions for TechWelkin readers:
List of Countries to Watch out for in the One Ring Scam
+221 – Senegal +222 – Mauritania +223 – Mali +224 – Guinea +225 – Côte d’Ivoire +226 – Burkina Faso +227 – Niger +228 – Togo +229 – Benin +257 – Burundi +265 – Malawi +92 – Pakistan + 7 – Russia +234 – Nigeria +216 – Tunisia +375 – Belarus +91 – India +20 – Egypt +235 – Chad +381 – Serbia +994 – Azerbaijan +676 – Tonga
I hope that this article has helped you in understanding the one ring scam. I advise you not to pick calls from unknown numbers that originate from foreign countries. Today’s world is full of digital frauds. Please be safe. If you have faced the one ring scam, please share your experience in the comments section below so that other readers can benefit from your experience and advice. Thank you for using TechWelkin! Now, I understand it is a spam. Thanks again. Now the situation would be that I was just having several Italian contacts concerning business and science interests. .So I called the number back, thinking it might be one of my contacts.. Fortunately the number did not pick up, a voice stated that the number did not exist.. I tried the number without the zero and fortunately the same voice message that the number did not exits… My wive later told me that the phone companies are working hard to try to stop these scams and are branding thousands of foreign numbers each week as dangerous and block them I was always wondering what is the benefit of someone ringing and hanging up. Now, I understand the scam after reading this valuable article Saturday, 21st November 2020 @18:35pm, I received two calls from the listed numbers +22394326249 and +22391328528. I answered the first call, but then realised that it was most probably a scam. Thankfully, no money was taken from credit. I googled the +223 and saw that it was a Premium Rate number from Mali. About 5 minutes later, I received a call from the second number, but completely ignored it. A SCAM I’ve also been getting confirmation messages from WhatsApp, which means that they’re trying to use your phone number to make WhatsApp accounts. If you get one of those, do NOT click the confirmation link. The phone number itself was +441313220551, so for anyone reading this, make sure to watch for ones that start with +44 too, they’re using UK numbers aswell now. to your list of dodgy numbers to avoid calling back. Just to point out, though. If you have VoIP it is trivial to make your caller ID say whatever you want it to. So the call back number might be in Burundi or Tajikistan or Nauru, or wherever the premium price line is located, but the scammer himself could be sitting in Pittsburgh for all we would know. He doesn’t have to be physically in the country where he has made the deal with the local phone company. I’m just afraid of such international miss calls. i rang them back…rings twice then someone picks up but its silent so im thinking theyre bots of some sort. And one from Greece +3059001003 Only I could to “answer” one and inmediately the cut the calling XD -Sharad Some where they hacked my details where i have given my wife number as alternative number. Benin : +229 92294871 Belarus : + 375(44) 3401487 South Africa: +27 879010740 I don’t know anybody living there. So they must be fraud calls. I didn’t reply, and after reading this I see I did the right thing! Thanks for the heads up 269 8202703 Comoros 269 8202702 Comoros 269 3914431 Comoros (Notice: same number, different country) 269 3914431 Canada (Notice: same number, different country) 2693914431 Canada (Notice: same number, different country) 2699001114 Kalamazoo, MI United States 2699001678 Kalamazoo, MI United States 2699002464 Kalamazoo, MI United States 41742773640 Switzerland 41 74 277 36 20 Switzerland 41 74 277 14 20 Switzerland (Notice: same number, different country) 41742771420 Canada (Notice: same number, different country) 2486427007 Birmingham, MI United States 257 72 33 52 14 Burundi 257 61 70 10 45 Burundi 257 61 70 10 43 Burundi 257 61 70 10 44 Burundi 252 64501321 Somalia These are the num: +7 025233993 (Russia) +62 85211495844 ( indonesia ) anyone had call from this number by the date 2018-02-01 +220 Gambia +254 Kenya Cheers fellas ;-) As I don’t know this person I am not attending the phone with phone blocker apps, then I started receiving calls perhaps from cards showing different local Saudi numbers each time ( calling every half hour) which I could not block as number changes each time. Due to these activities I am feeling to much irritated that I could not sleep well. Mkhursheed 08/11/2017 P.S. Thanks for the help ;3 There are even more scary scenarios, that are possible: if they actually want you to receive the call so they can record your voice and use it with a special computer software to generate speech imitating your voice. If they are scammers this can be further used to steal your identity, call your bank on your behalf and sh*t like that. Or it can be some government’s secret services building their database for some dark purposes, like the NSA. What I do is put those numbers on screened numbers list. Do not receive or call them back, and don’t speak to it no matter what. This is the second time i’ve experienced this, the last time they pestered me was early last year. But after then, they stopped, and now they’ve started again. Today is worst of them all. Both night and day. Those guys are asshole! Had been getting these stupid unknown calls which more or less gave me mini heart attacks every single time in inappropriate locations and times since 2013 I think. It’s no use blocking them since they have like heaps of numbers to use for scamming, but I sure do hope there’s a function to block an entire region code just for the sake of it. Getting real tired of getting shocked awake at midnights Got a call from +964 770 450 9874 I am receiving calls from few numbers since last few months. +85579585254 +6768974745 +85537693859 +85599942129 +56651973109- got a call from this number yesterday at 22:52 pm So fad up like this. I just missed a call from BURUNDI this morning. Great to have this info as a warning. Comment * Name * Email * Website
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