Lately, the mobile phone has become a target for scammers: from bogus jobs at Amazon to scams linked to the online banking application of your smartphoneAmong many other things.
A few days ago, the Spanish Civil Guard reported on its official Twitter account a new scam that those who are not aware of it could fall victim to.
We tell you everything you need to know about it to avoid the missed call scam.
What is the Missed Call Scam?
As reported by the Civil Guard, you will see a notification on your mobile with a missed call from an unusual number. Many people, when they see a missed call, tend to return that call to see who the person who tried to contact them was.
The moment you return that call, you will be charged a special rate of which the scammer will take a cut. As you can see in the tweet below, scam numbers are those that start with the prefixes 355, 225, 233 or 234.
These are prefixes from Albania, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria. So, if you don’t know anyone from these countries or you usually don’t receive calls from these countries, it’s best to ignore the missed call.
Do you know the missed call scam? 📞
Do not return missing of these prefixes:
355 👉 Albania
225 👉 Ivory Coast
233 👉 Ghana
234 👉 NigeriaThey will charge you special fees. pic.twitter.com/tVIinOZ4ZC
– Civil Guard 🇪🇸 (@guardiacivil)
June 6, 2022
How to avoid phone scams
It is a fact that the rise of technologies has pushed scammers to get to work so that they can also use the new devices as a way to earn money illegally.
For this reason, there are more and more scams at the same time on line
We wanted to bring together in a very detailed guide everything you need to take into account to avoid online scams. Some of the key points are to always keep in mind who the recipient is, an official entity such as a bank or the government itself will never contact you by phone asking for your bank details.
In addition, you should always be careful with online purchases, many banks offer virtual cards that are safer to use and, also, you should always check that the website you are buying from offers the necessary protection.
