New cases of scam calls from Tunisia and Great Britain are reported. Here’s what it is and how to defend yourself
The scam of calls with foreign prefix (usually from Tunisia or Great Britain) continues to grind victims. The epidemic of Covid-19 does not seem to have stopped the scammers, who, indeed, have increased their activity, as evidenced by the post published on Facebook by the account “Una vita da social” managed by the State Police. In recent days there are dozens and dozens of posts and comments about phone calls received from Tunisia that “invite” users to call the number back. The reason? These are pay-as-you-go numbers: one ring is enough to be charged 1.5 euros on the phone credit.
But how exactly does this kind of scam work? Very simple. You receive a call from a foreign number: a couple of rings, just enough time to catch the user’s attention, who, intrigued by the foreign number, tries to call back. And here is where the scam starts: after the first ring there is immediately an answer, a few seconds of silence and the call ends. The result? At least a couple of euros subtracted from the phone account. Is there a way to defend yourself? Sure, you just need a bit of cunning and use some tools on your smartphone: here’s what you need to do.
What is Wangiri scam
The technical name for this type of scam is Wangiri and it uses the ping call system. This is not a new scam, but it has been going on for several years now and, unfortunately, always with excellent results. The scam follows a tried and tested pattern: you receive a call from a number with a foreign prefix (usually Tunisia (+216), but there have also been reports of calls from Great Britain, Kosovo, and other Eastern European countries).
The call lasts just long enough for a ring (hence the name “ping call scam”), to catch the user’s attention. Receiving a call from an unknown number, mostly from abroad, raises curiosity. And that’s how many call back to find out who was looking for them. Unfortunately, this is exactly what the scammers want: as soon as the call starts, you receive an answer, only there is no one on the other end of the phone, only silence. A few seconds and the call is cut off. Many people think it’s some bad joke, but just check your phone bill to find out that for a few seconds of the call you have been charged 4 or 5 euros. In fact, the cost of the call is 1.5 euros per second.
How to defend yourself against the ringer scam
There is no 100% reliable technique to defend yourself against this type of scam, but it does require the use of some smartphone tools and a little bit of cunning.
Let’s start from this last point: when we receive a phone call from a foreign prefix number that we don’t know exists, the first thing to do is not to call it back, but to search on the Web and see if it is reliable or not. This should be enough to understand if it is a scam.
Another tip to follow: Android and iOS allow you to block phone numbers. If you receive calls from any of these scam numbers, blacklist them so that all future calls are automatically blocked.