A woman using a cell phone[Courtsey]
Safaricom, has come out to warn its customers against returning calls by unknown numbers with strange international prefixes.
This follows complaints from Kenyans claiming to have received missed calls from unknown numbers originating from countries such as Albania, Syria, Andorra, Azerbaijan and Qatar.
Lately when one returns these missed calls from strange numbers, the receivers on the other end will only redirect them to premium rate numbers overseas and have them unknowingly billed while listening to pre-recorded messages.This type of scam is internationally known as the Wangiri Fraud.
According to an October 19 2017 article published by the Irish Times 'Wangiri Fraud'.
"What happens when you return a missed call from an unusual number?Once they do return the missed call they will be re-routed to premium rate number overseas and will be subsequently billed exorbitant sums for the privilege of listening to pre-recorded messages."
“The aim of the scam is to encourage those who see a missed call on their phone to ring the number, after which they will be ripped off"part of the article read.
Here are some of Kenyans reactions on twitter
@giniekay@SafaricomLtd Today I've received missed calls from +963 and +252. I don't even know which countries those are.
@SafaricomLtd should look into this..i got several from +41, Albania amd god knows where!
@SafaricomLtd@Safaricom_Care Avoid returning calls to any unknown international number. ^RM