A phone number you don’t know calls you and hangs up without even giving you time to answer? Beware, this is probably the new trendy scam!
This may have already happened to you. You receive a phone call, but it cuts off after the first or second ring, without even giving you time to pick up! Curious, you look at your screen, which displays a missed call from a number that is displayed in plain text but that you do not know. But who could it be? And to find out, there are not thirty-six solutions, you decide to call back this mysterious correspondent. After all, you wouldn’t want to miss something important! Above all, don’t do anything about it! You risk calling a premium rate number and losing money.
This is a fairly widespread telephone scam called wangiri – literally “one ring and cut” in Japanese –, voice spam or even ping calls. It consists of making your telephone ring without giving you time to answer, so that the number appears on the list of missed calls, and thus ensuring that you call back a premium rate number, often located abroad.
To prevent you from being suspicious, scammers do not hesitate to make their calls from numbers in 01, 02, 04, etc. And they don’t hesitate to call you at any time, which can be really annoying! Once they have you online, they make sure to keep you there as long as possible.
And the bill can quickly become steep if you take too long. For these malicious actors, the opportunity can be lucrative, as they increase the number of calls, often resorting to automated solutions. Small variation: sometimes, they give you time to answer, before cutting off the discussion just after your “hello?”, again so that you call the number back. In short, you will have understood, this scam aims to arouse your curiosity in order to deceive you!
Be careful though, if your phone rings, but the person hangs up immediately or after a few seconds of silence, it is not necessarily a scam. You may also be dealing with a legitimate telemarketing campaign that uses an automatic dialing system. It will attempt to connect you to an advisor, but the operation may fail, ending the call abruptly. But, in any case, you are not missing anything important!
To protect yourself, avoid calling back if you receive a missed call from an unknown number. If it’s really important, the person will contact you again or leave you a message on the answering machine or by SMS.
You can also block unknown numbers directly in your phone settings, or opt for an app that identifies unwanted calls. Generally, your operator offers a function of this type — such as the Orange Telephone application. And if you’re really worried about missing something important, find out who the number belongs to by searching the SVA reverse directory before you do anything.