Beware “Wangiri” Phone Scam
The Spanish consumers association have issued a warning about the latest telephone call scam where criminals attempt to dupe victims into calling back a number after missing a call, but it is one that will cost them financially when they do.
The Organisation of Users and Consumers saidthe scam is known as “wangiri”, which is Japanese for: call and cut. And that is precisely what the scammers do. They call a number, barely let it ring and then hang up. When the person returns the call, they are actually calling a premium rate number, usually abroad, for which there is a hefty charge for both call set-up and connection time. But you may not actually know that you have been duped until you get your bill and see the charge
Scam calls usually come from a foreign number, recognisable because its identifier will start with a ‘+’ or a ’00’ followed by a prefix before the phone number itself (the Spanish prefix is +34 or 0034, but operators remove this prefix for national calls), the OCU pointed out.
If you have fallen for the scam the OCU in Spain you can report it through INCIBE – Spain’s national institute of cyber security.
