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Calling Back to Missed Callers be Careful before Dialing

If you are in habit of calling back to unknown missed callers, be cautious before dialing such phone numbers as, these days, many mobile subscribers got their talk-time balance emptied by ringing back to some mobile numbers. It has been noticed by many users that after calling back to unidentified missed called numbers from their cell-phones, their mobile balance was drained quickly.

What to do if you get Missed Call from Strange Number

If you get missed call from unknown mobile number, think twice before you call back. Watch carefully the country code of the unknown numbers. Country code for India is +91, for Pakistan +92, for Nepal +977, etc. Before dialing the full number remove the +91, +92, +977 etc. If you get “Please Check the Number” response, you can put 0 before the edited number so that this becomes STD call.

What will Happen after Calling back to Strange Numbers

track missed caller before you call back
Strange Missed Call
It is a common issue that when any mobile user finds any missed call in the cell-phone, he/she thinks it that the missed call might be made by known persons such as relatives, friends, colleagues, etc. In response to the missed call, the user calls the number back for conversing to dear ones. But in some situations the missed calls might be a fake international call or a premium number calling to which will cost higher than the expected call rate. The mobile balance could be deducted at the rate of Rs 50 to Rs 200 per minute on calling these fake unknown numbers.
Attackers trick victims into calling them back on premium-rate numbers by dropping missed calls. Such missed calls usually last for just one or two rings and it is highly recommended that you DO NOT DIAL these numbers back. This is actually an old scam for looting the mobile balance that has come back and we would like to warn cell-phone users against them. These are known as International Premium Rate Numbers (IPRN) and people who call them are charged at very high call rates which are finally transferred in the attacker’s account. This trick is known as ‘Wangiri’ fraud. In Japan, ‘Wangiri’ means “One Ring and Cut” and so it is thought that this scam might be originated in Japan.

Some Examples of ‘Wangiri’ Fraud

Here are the some real experiences faced after calling back to strange missed callers:
  • Some days ago my younger sister received a call starting from +92 about 5:00 a.m. in the morning. She thought it that the caller might be from one of the relatives or friends. After talking about 45 seconds the call got disconnected and she noticed it that all the balance (about Rs 80) of that SIM had gone away.
  • One of my colleagues also got trapped in the similar calling back to unknown missed call situation that cost him about Rs 180.
  • A university student from Kolkata received a missed call from unknown number staring with +22455. Seemingly, it looks like a Mumbai based number as Mumbai’s STD code is 22. He thought it that the caller might be from one of his several friends living in Mumbai. Without any doubt, he called the number back and found it that there was a woman talking from another end. She was speaking in good Hindi and told the student that the number belonged to a Mumbai-based cell-phone Company. She further told him that his mobile number has won big amount through a lucky contest and asked for his address to receive the award. He talked for about 8 minutes and when the call finished, he found that the call cost was about Rs 400.

Precautions to Be Taken while Calling Back to Missed Callers

If you receive a missed call and find it suspicious you must immediately do not call back. Simply ignore such suspicious missed calls. If you really need to call the number back then,
  • Observe the missed call number carefully.
  • Remove the country code from the number such as +91, +92, +977, etc.
  • Now dial the number (after removal of country code).
  • If you hear “Please Check the Number”, i.e. the number is not a local one then put 0 (zero) before the modified number.
  • Now dial the number (after removal of country code and placing 0 in place of country code). In this case the call becomes only an STD call.
This is how you can safeguard your mobile balance by carefully calling back to such calls.

It is highly recommended to share this information among your relatives, friends, and colleagues and to the common men also not to respond to such fake missed callers. Also, if you have any updates on this issue, do share it below:

3 comments:

  1. praveen kr4:31 PM

    Yes! Generally, everyone replies the unknown number. The best way to prevent such a scam is to increase awareness and share experiences among common people. Thanks for this important information.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown ISD Calls5:13 PM

    Yes this is true that calling back to unknown number may be problematic for the mobile user.
    A public guideline was issued by mobile operators to aware the mobile customers,
    The guideline was sent in form of SMS which states as follows:
    "Pl. don't respond to missed calls from Unknown ISD numbers which prefix other than +91 or call/SMS about winning prizes / lottery as these may be fraudulent calls".

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous11:50 AM

    i got call from +3096607252 his name mention in screen 'Muthineni' .who is this donky....plz shall any lion's are find this devil...

    ReplyDelete