FCC warns of Sierra Leone ‘one ring’ robocallers: Don’t call back

The Federal Communications Commission is warning people about a reported wave of the “one-ring” or “Wangiri” scam. If you are one of the many people who has received a late night phone call from Sierra Leone, do not be tempted to call them back.

Robocallers tend to target specific area codes, call numerous times during the middle of the night, and tend to hang up after one or two rings. Their main objective is to get people to call to the back, resulting in a toll paid to the scammer. According to the FCC, you can receive additional charges per minute if you continue to stay on the phone with them. It will should up on your bill as premium services.

The calls being receive have been coming from a 222 or 232 country codes, which are the West African Countries of Mauritania and Sierra Leone. The FCC recommends not to call back a number that you are unfamiliar with, especially ones from overseas.

How to avoid this scam:

• Don’t answer or return any calls from numbers you don’t recognize
• Before calling unfamiliar numbers, check to see if the area code is international
• If you do not make international calls, ask your phone company to block outgoing international call on your time
• Always be cautious, even if a number appears authentic

Blocking the numbers sometimes does not help because robocallers tends to change numbers but most phone companies do allow you to block international calls or calls from a specific region.

You can file at complaint with the FCC at www.fcc.gov/complaints

Advances in technology allows massive amounts of calls to be made cheaply and easily. In addition, spoofing tools make it easy for scammers to mask their identity. The FCC is working to combat scams calls with enforcement actions, a strong push for caller ID authentication, and support for calls blocking tools said the agency.

Source: Fox 5 News