who makes these calls and what dangers they have

It is possible that for a few years now, and more or less frequently, you have been receiving strange calls on your mobile. miss you because once you pick up you don’t get an answer from a caller or they hang up directly. They can be very annoying, although they are not necessarily dangerous, as they are not always phone scams.

We can differentiate different types of calls and different purposes. And without ignoring that it could indeed be a scam attempt, we help you identify what type of calls it is and, of course, avoid greater dangers.

These are mostly robocalls

Image: Mohamed Hassan on Pixabay

Also known as “robocalls”, these calls sometimes they don’t come from a real person, but from an automatic system. For reasons of efficiency and savings, many companies resort to services capable of creating voiceovers with which to carry out marketing campaigns. The goal doesn’t have to be bad. It can be simply to inform or contract a product or service in a completely legal way.

We can too identify if a call is made by a bot in a very simple way and not only because of the characteristics of the voice that calls us, which tends to always have a neutral tone and follow a very marked script. You can tell if you are asking unanswered questions or giving an inconsistent answer. You will also notice a particular insistence from the voice to give you a call to action, asking you to act immediately.

And although we already say that in many cases it can come from a real company and for lawful and legal purposes, that too there may be a risk of fraud. Hence the recommendation of do not give personal data. This is somewhat applicable even when the caller is clearly a human.

In these times when scams abound, it is better not to provide data even if you are interested in what they offer. In this case, it is better to hang up and then call the real company via a trusted number, not the one who called us. This way you can make sure that you are contacting a real company and not scammers pretending to be that company. If what they offered you was a temporary offer, be clear that they can keep it even if you contact them.

You’ll think it has nothing to do with what happens when we take the call and no one answers or they hang up? but it is related. Many of these systems place calls from switchboards, recording fewer outgoing calls than available carriers.

In case they are real people, for obvious reasons, if they don’t have agents available, they won’t be able to answer the call

and when you get it, either it crashes or you wait a long time. And the same can happen if they are robots, because the software that provides these services is usually also limited to a certain number of simultaneous calls.

And you will say, Why do they call me then if no one is available? Well, purely and simply for sheer efficiency, making several calls per minute and thus ensuring that a percentage of those calls made will be picked up.

Returning to the field of scams, Another of the purposes that these calls may have is to allow you to return the call

. It’s the old missed call scam, which is made from foreign or Spanish numbers with special rates and that, if they only pick up when you call, they will have already entered a good amount of money which , logically, will be deducted from your invoice.

Tips to avoid these calls and their dangers

Whether it is to avoid telephone spam in the case of normal business calls or to avoid being scammed, the main tips to be applied can be summarized in the following list:

Never return calls: If you are concerned that it is an important call, rest assured that in this circumstance, they will contact you again without your needing to do so.
Limit premium rate calls: While not forwarding these calls is sufficient, contact your carrier to make sure they are blocked. If on any occasion you need to make such a call for truly lawful purposes, you can always unblock them.
Do not give any personal data: neither your surname, first names, nor address and, far from it, your bank account or card number.
Do not press any key: during the call, and even if the caller asks you to, do not press any number on the keypad.
If in doubt, hang up: if you are unsure of the reliability of the call, hanging up directly is always the best option.
Block the number if you already know who it is: If you are not interested in what they are offering in this call or think it is a scam, block the number.
Activate the Google filter: It’s in the ‘Phone’ app and the activation process is simple, all you have to do is enable the ‘See caller ID and spam’ option.
If in doubt, call the actual company: always do it through a trusted number and not the one from which you received this call. If they have no record that you received this call, chances are they have impersonated you for fraudulent purposes.