If you have ever been called from an international number that you did not recognize, it may be a scam called Wangiri Fraud; A type of scam that can cost you dearly.
According to ISNA, the Wangiri scam works in such a way that the scammer puts a robot or a calling robot on a number and hangs up after one or two beeps. These robots may even call a number several times. The idea of this scam is for the person who received the missed call to call the number.
In this type of scam, the attacker generates a series of special or premium numbers. (Premium numbers are numbers that have been created to provide a special service and the cost of calling them is more than usual) and from them randomly make calls to numbers around the world and immediately hang up to miss a call (Missed Call) on the phone See the victim.
If the victim attempts to call back to the attacker, a recorded message is played to him and he is involved in high bills without the person noticing; Most attackers try to persuade the victim to talk more and impose more costs by raising interesting topics such as winning the lottery, etc.
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Wangiri calls are common all over the world
The Wangiri scam has several years of origins and first appeared in the United States in 2013, and over the years, while many Americans have been involved in the scam, it has gained worldwide fame and spread to countries such as Ireland, Scotland and Germany. . Also, since the beginning of the year, this method of fraud has returned to the United States, and Americans have recently witnessed a sharp increase in contacts with this method from West Africa.
These contacts mainly come from small or developing countries. These countries may have originated in Botswana, Guinea and Guyana. These countries have codes that start with +267, +2424 and +592, respectively. Of course, these numbers may be from anywhere in the world.
Unfortunately, a person who has been scammed in this way may not realize what has happened to him or her until he or she receives his or her bill and sees the premium service on the bill. So if you receive an unexpected call from an unknown international or unusual number, there are simple steps you can take to protect yourself against Wangiri scams.
First, do not respond to unexpected calls from international or unusual numbers; second, if you receive a missed call from an international or unusual number, do not be tempted to call again. You can also block unfamiliar numbers abroad and premium services and share these numbers with your operator so they can research them.
What if you fall into the trap of telephone fraud? Do not forget that the calls you receive are all made with special numbers that are provided for specific services, so the cost of answering or calling them from any line is much more expensive than usual for you.
If you answer them, you have given them the initial feed – but it is worse to wait behind the line; Don’t expect, no human will answer you – those calls are made by computer robots, which only make you hear beeps, music, and misleading messages. The longer you stay behind the line, the more it costs you, and the more money they make.
How to protect yourself
There is no choice but to refuse to respond to anonymous calls made by people fleeing the community – especially when the call is “international”.
Check the number and number of calls received – do not answer if they are not internal.
If you find yourself receiving a backlog of anonymous numbers, changing your phone line may be an easy way out, but it will definitely cost you dearly, as many friends, colleagues, family, and people will contact you regularly. They will lose temporarily, and you should try to let them know about your new line, apart from the money you have to pay for it.
How they got your information
If you are wondering how fraudsters got to your number, you should know that when you enter your number on a website or application for any purpose and provide it to the service provider, opportunists seek to obtain or steal databases, either legally or illegally. Sites, which contain all the information of users, including their phone number – a disaster that has always occurred on users’ emails.
Over the years, millions of people around the world have been leaking sensitive information on the Internet due to the inefficiency and irresponsibility of many providers in maintaining system security issues.
Earlier this year, we saw people gain unauthorized access to a company database called People Data Labs, which contained more than 1.2 billion user information records such as emails, Social Security numbers, and contact numbers.
There are also websites that search for your information by taking your email or phone number and notifying you in a message if it leaks or does not leak on the Internet – do not even trust them.
Under no circumstances should you trust external websites, and unknown internal websites.
You can ask your operator to block all “international” calls to eliminate the problem.
Your phone may have the ability to neutralize all unknown calls that you can use.
What if you fall into their trap?
If you answer one of the vanguard calls and wait behind the line, we suggest that you contact your operator and discuss this with them so that they may ignore the amount deducted from the account, or added to the monthly bill.
Also Read: “Fix Downloading Messages from iCloud Getting Stuck”
Conclusion
Your carelessness in dealing with such issues, and not reporting your problem to the relevant institutions, not only catches you, but also brings the swindlers one step closer to victory.
Before getting into trouble, be careful not to leave emails, phone numbers, user information, citizenship information, and anything else important to unknown and irrelevant people and websites.
Never sign up for websites you do not know. Set a password for your browser and clear the information in cookies once a day, do not use unofficial software on your computer and phone, never reveal your account information in the comments (and even private messages) to others.
These are just a few of the things you need to do, and the rest is up to the service providers to take care of your information.
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