Originally emerged from Japan, the notorious phone call scam, dubbed as “Wangiri” or “One-ring” has started targeting mobile phone users in Pakistan.
Users have been sharing (and re-sharing) on social media as well as they are messaging on WhatsApp in groups or in private messages to their friends, families and relatives about the scam which outburst in Pakistan last week.
The term “Wangiri”, used for the scam originally started from Japan, means “One ring and cut“. The process involves autodialers to call thousands of mobile users leaving a missed call alert with a premium rate number or advertising responders.
Naturally it would urge many receivers to call back and that’s the real intention or purpose of the scam. Dialing back to those international premium rate numbers would charge heavily for the connecting fee, and continuous call charges. This may not hurt a receiver more than a single international call charge from its mobile operator. However, if thousands of the receivers would call back, the scammers would have a chance to get a huge premium rate number revenue.
Several mobile phone users in Pakistan received phone calls from unknown international numbers last week. Now it’s reportedly believed that it’s the same “Wangiri” or “one-ring” scam.
Among some truth to the scam, people added their own bits to scare the consumers with unreliable issues. As shared by some users on WhatsApp groups, people seem to be scared of getting their private information hijacked by the callers. Here is the complete message like the ones being circulated on social media and WhatsApp.
Please pass this message to your family and friends NOW.
People have been receiving calls from
Tel: +375602605281
Tel: +37127913091
Tel: +37178565072
Tel: +56322553736
Tel: +37052529259
Tel: +255901130460or any number starting from +371 +375 +381
These guys only ring once and hang up.
If you call back, they can copy your contact list in 3 sec and if you have a bank or credit card details on your phone, they can copy that too…
+375 code is for Belarus.
+371 code is for Lativa.
+381 Serbia.
+563 Valparaiso.
+370 Vilnius.
+255 Tanzania.
Don’t answer or Call back.
Also, Don’t Press
#90 or #09
on your Mobile when asked by any caller.
It’s a new trick which is used to access your SIM card, make calls at your expense and frame you as a criminal.
URGENTLY FORWARD this message to as many friends as you can to stop any intrusion!!!
To tackle with the fake information spread over the social media, Khalid Anees, the deputy director of Federal Investigation Agency Punjab Cybercrime Wing, intervened responsibly. He said that these forwarded messages are creating panic.
“It is not possible to access the SIM card using international calls,” Khalid Anees told The Dawn. “The received calls are being made through the internet; this is called ‘net war’. Circulating these forwards messages is like giving credence to rumour mongering.”
It’s advised that accepting or returning the phone calls have no serious impact on the user’s data. In order to steal information from phones, hackers would have to go through more complex route for that.
Local security expert Norbert Almeida had also seconded the FIA’s statement, “Phones cannot be hacked in this way. The only thing they can do is expect you to call back and incur high calling charges, in which the hackers get a cut.” Almeida added, “Don’t call back unknown international numbers. And if it persists, just don’t answer.”
