Why you should think twice about returning that 'missed call'

Missed call notification

The Communication Authority of Kenya has issued an alert on the resurgence of ‘missed international calls’ scam.

Mobile phone users have been warned against responding to missed calls from unknown international numbers.

CA through the National Kenya Computer Incident Response Team Coordination Centre has received confirmed fresh reports of the re-emergence of 'Wangiri', an international phone scam.

Wangiri was first reported in Kenya in January 2018. Scammers are using various platforms including social media to rob their victims.

Most of the phone numbers are reported to bear international dialing codes from various countries including Switzerland (+41), Syria (+963), Somalia (+252) and Latvia (+37).

The Communication Authority has further urged those who have already fallen victim to report the number(s) used to scam them to their service providers who will then block the contact(s) and prevent others from being scammed.

How it works

The scam is designed to lure phone users into returning international missed calls which are redirected to premium numbers that are used to drain the victim's airtime.

The longer the victims stay on the line, the more money they lose to the scammers.

Post-paid subscribers end up losing the most money as they receive their phone bills at the end of the month while those on pre-paid only lose their loaded airtime.

Scammers buy the phone lines from the Dark Web, a hidden part of the internet mostly used for buying and selling illegal goods, which makes it difficult to trace.