Scam Alert: One Ring Phone Calls

Scam alert: The next time you hear one ring or see a missed call on your mobile phone or landline from a number you don’t recognize, do not call back.

The one ring phone call scam is back, and if you fall for it, you could find yourself charged a bundle, perhaps as much as $30, or even more.

The call looks like it comes from your local or regional area code, or even “800 Service”, but it isn’t.

it’s called “spoofing” when the scammer mimics your own area code.

It’s called “cramming,” when third-party scammers sneak bogus charges onto legitimate phone bills.

The one ring phone scam is also known as the Wangiri fraud.

The Federal Trade Commission has been warning about the one ring phone call scam since 2019, when we first wrote about it here.

How the One Ring Phone Call Scam Works:

Scammers based overseas use auto-dialing computer programs to call phones and hang up after one ring, which is just enough to cause a missed call message to register on your phone.

If you call back, you are connected to a paid-per-call “adult entertainment service” located overseas.

You could be charged as much as $19.95 for the connection, plus $9 or more per minute for the unwanted “service”.

You may be left on “hold” for several minutes, or a long pre-recorded answer, racking up expensive minute-by-minute charges.

Other scammers charge just a few bucks in the hopes you won’t notice it on your monthly phone bill.

It’s easy to make a mistake with an area code, since there are so many and it’s tough to keep track of all the new ones and remember where they are.

But if you get a call from any of these area codes, ignore it, unless there is a caller ID and you actually know the person calling:

Avoid These One-Ring Callers:

222 – Mauritius
232 – Sierra Leone
268 – Antigua
284 – British Virgin Islands
473 – Grenada
809 – Dominican Republic
876 – Jamaica

I’ve also been getting a bunch of one-ring calls lately that come up as “800 Service” on my caller ID. Don’t answer those, or return them, either.

If you’re really tempted to call back that number, don’t do it until you check one of the online reverse directories.

Sites like whocalled.us also track complaints and questions about calls from specific numbers.

And you should file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, too.

Slate magazine also has an excellent full explanation of the one ring phone call scam.

Check Your Monthly Statements

Always check your monthly bill for fraudulent charges – and not just your phone bill.

Also check your credit card bills. I recently found an errant 43 cent charge on one of my credit cards. 43 cents!

The scammers hope you won’t notice, or won’t bother to report it. I did, and so should you.

ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter is a journalist with 25+ years of experience as a newspaper and magazine writer, radio & TV news producer & reporter, and author of guidebooks and smartphone apps – all focusing on travel, automotive, the environment and your rights as a consumer.