Beware of One Ring Call

One ring phone scam - We receive many messages cautioning us about phone related scams, frauds etc. I am not sure how seriously we take them. But when we hear from a known person narrating his bad experience , we may take it seriously. That is the purpose of my this message. The following is my personal bitter experience , happened two days back ( 23.7.20). At 2.11 pm , as I was woken up from my afternoon nap , by a call . It rang only once. I ignored it. After sometime it rang again , only one ring. I called that no back and cut it off after listening to some announcement in an unknown language. Then the flood gate opened. For the next few hours I was repeatdly getting calls - all one ring calls . The nos start with different country codes " +676/+375/+501/+436". In total I might have recd more than two dozen calls within few hours. I sensed something wrong and started blocking those nos. Still I was getting calls from different nos. I browsed internet and found that the one ring phone scam is a worldwide phenomenon , affecting millions of unsuspecting victims. The scamsters are employed by phone service providers of remote African or carribbean countries. They use software for automatic dialling of randomly selected nos of other countries. If any victim returns the call , they engage them in announcement / conversation for some time . These lines are registered as premium lines in those countries . Per minute call rate is very high . Victims will be shocked to find very high overseas call charges in their next bill. Scamsters are given share of this loot by the telecom companies of those countries. Your service provider in India like Jio , Airtel are duty bound to collect this from you and to pay to those overseas telecom companies. Another risk is that if you return the call and engage in conversation , there is a danger of these scamsters accessing the information on your mobile like personal data including bank account details , your contacts etc. On that day at 5 pm , I tried sending money to our veg vendor through google pay . To my shock , it informed that the sim is new and I need to reregister . I am not sure whether the scamsters were trying to do any mischief for stealing money from my bank ac. After this episode , I took the following steps . 1. I called Airtel to disable ISD outgoing calls from my no . 2. I uninstalled all apps from my phone including all payment apps like Gpay, Bhim, PayTm etc 3. I stopped using my mobile for any NetBanking or money transfer activity. I am now using only my Laptop for these. 4. Through NetBanking of SBI , I disabled the link of my SB account with UPI payment . 5. I am also trying to deregister my UPI for the time being. In short my humble suggestion - Do not return any single ring calls from unknown nos especially having other country codes. Immediately block those nos. If you are not using ISD , contact Airtel / Jio to bar all ISD outgoing calls. Never use cell phones for money transfers. Use Laptops only for net banking . Very sorry for this long message. But I thought sharing my bad experience may caution others . Now I am keeping my fingers crossed to know what my next month's phone bill will be . Please go through various information available on internet a out " Single ring phone scam ". Stay safe not only from Covid 19 but also from phone scamsters. Hope this message is useful to you. Source: Whatsapp Forward