Since the early 2000’s there has been an on-going scam across the world involving international premium charge lines.

According to the data, Ireland has become a popular target for these types of phone attacks in recent years, as I am sure you noticed yourself on your mobile phone. But what is going on here and what is the scam, and how can you avoid getting hooked and robbed by these malicious phone pirates?

This scam is called “The one ring scam”. Basically, fraudsters in a different country ring your mobile phone number from a premium charge line, one ring and they hang up. You see a missed call from a foreign number and think that someone is trying to contact you and ring back, once you ring back, you are connected to a premium rate line and you are paying top dollar. There may be no-one on the line, you may hear music, a please hold message, some XXX rated discussion, it could be anything but once they keep you on the line you are paying from your phone account.

How to avoid this scam, easy….don’t ring back international numbers that appear as missed calls on your phone, please ask yourself “how many friends do I have in Burkina Faso?”

If you are expecting a call from an international number, ask the caller to confirm the number in advance, and you can save it to your phone. Therefore, ensuring the call is legitimate.

According to telecoms data most of these calls originate from the following countries (I have included the international prefix also):

• +221 – Senegal
• +222 – Mauritania
• +223 – Mali
• +224 – Guinea
• +225 – Côte d’Ivoire
• +226 – Burkina Faso
• +227 – Niger
• +228 – Togo
• +229 – Benin
• +257 – Burundi
• +265 – Malawi
• +92   – Pakistan
• + 7   –  Russia
• +234 – Nigeria
• +216 – Tunisia
• +375 – Belarus
• +91 – India
• +20 – Egypt
• +235 – Chad
• +381 – Serbia
• +994 – Azerbaijan
• +676 – Tonga

I have also received calls from other areas including Bosnia (+387), North Macedonia (+389), Chile (+56) and Albania (+355)

So, the bottom line is don’t ring back foreign phone numbers unless you know who it is you are ringing, otherwise it may well cost you a fortune. Any questions or comments you can contact me on my website https://samurai-services.ie/

Stay safe guys 😊

Samurai Services (Ireland) protecting your world, today and tomorrow.