Donegal phone users are being asked to beware of bogus calls from foreign numbers.
In recent days Donegal phone users have reported missed calls from countries such as Chad and Liberia, with the country codes +231 and +235.
The scammers will call your phone for a few seconds before hanging up, and when you ring back they will drain your credit.
If the victim calls the number back sometimes scammers will play bizarre prerecorded voicemails in a bid to make you stay on the phone longer, including someone calling for help and a woman saying “I’ve been waiting for you.”
This type of scam, known as Wangiri fraud, can be difficult to detect as they seem like genuine calls.
Ireland’s communications regulator ComReg is asking people to be vigilant and encourages phone users to ignore such calls.
ComReg advises taking the following precautions:
• Avoid answering calls from numbers that you cannot identify, especially if you are not expecting a call.
• Hang up immediately, on calls where there appears to be no recipient on the other end.
• Be wary of multiple calls being received from the same number.
• Do not call back any number that leaves you a blank voicemail message.
• Do not provide any personal information for example – banking details/PPS number/credit card details/name and address/passport number etc.
Unfortunately there is no way to identify a scam call number, and they can resemble a very normal, familiar, geographical number that we would come across on a daily basis, according to ComReg guidelines.
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