Unfortunately, there are countless scams related to mobile phones: sometimes it’s just spam, other times – increasingly – the “Hello Dad, Hello Mom” scam. However, there are naturally missed calls from unknown numbers.
A missed call, i.e. a call you don’t answer or get through to someone, can put you and your money at risk. However, it ‘hides’ one of the most effective tricks in the world and its great performance is precisely due to the simplicity of the scam.
Now look: When you get a notification on your cell phone, it’s normal to open it and see who or what it is. We do the same when calling with one difference: we often try to verify by calling the lost number again.
And what does fraud consist of? To get rid of the call, cybercriminals call your cell phone, but hang up after two or three rings before you have time to answer. Cybercriminals need callbacks precisely because those numbers refer to phones outside the country, which means callbacks may incur additional charges.
Cybercriminals will get a percentage of the fees charged to the victim and additional amounts if the victim is on the phone for a short period of time.
The Spanish Civil Guard warns of the problem, pointing out a series of phone numbers to avoid falling victim to this scam. If you see a missed call from one of these prefixes, it’s best to ignore it: 355 (Albania), 225 (Ivory Coast), 233 (Ghana) and 234 (Nigeria).
These are the most common numbers, but not the only ones, as we know, cybercriminals keep updating and adapting their scams to anticipate users’ preventive actions.
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