Mute calls from abroad that steal phone account money are back: how to defend yourself
They come at any time of day, but especially towards evening, when people have left work and have more free time. What are we talking about? The silent calls that steal users' money as soon as you try to call them back. One ring is enough to have 1.50 euros deducted from the SIM account. But the amount can reach tens of euros if you wait on the line about ten seconds. A real bloodletting that in recent days is affecting an increasing number of users.
This is not a new scam, but a scam that now goes on for almost a decade, but, unfortunately, never goes out of fashion and always affects new victims, especially older people and those who are unfamiliar with the world of telephony. How does the scam work? Very simple: you receive a call from a number with a foreign prefix (usually Tunisian or Kosovar, but in recent weeks new ones have been added) that lasts only a few rings and does not give you time to answer. And that's where the scam starts.
People who try to call back to find out who it is, fall into the trap.
Through a system called ping call, the call is transferred to a pay line able to scale the phone account up to 1.50 euros per second. But that's not all, in some cases payment subscriptions worth 5-6 euros per week have been activated. Here are the numbers not to answer.
Mute calls from abroad: the numbers not to answer
The scam-calls usually use foreign prefixes. From what has emerged in recent days, the calls come from Tunisia (+216), Moldova (+373), Vanuatu (+678), Kosovo (+383), Belarus (+375), Latvia (+371), Tanzania (+255) and Great Britain (+44). Logically, we do not want to say that all the calls that come from numbers with these prefixes are dangerous, but before calling back you should do an online research to understand who it is.
The operation of the calls we have already explained earlier: usually you receive a ring from one of these numbers and then the user falls into the trap when you call him back. If, however, you manage to answer, on the other side of the handset there will be no one, as if the call was silent.
How to protect yourself from calls that steal money
Understanding in advance that it is a scam is not simple. In such cases, it is necessary to know a little bit about how online scams work and try in any way to avoid them. Fortunately, there are tools at our disposal that help us detect dangerous numbers and nip them in the bud. We're talking about some apps on the Google Play Store and App Store that allow you to block incoming calls from call centers, but also scam numbers. One of the most used and popular ones is TrueCaller.