Scams are never fun to deal with. No one ever wants to lose some of their hard earned money just because someone tricked them. Sadly, falling for scams is easier than people are aware. Scammers have dozens of different plays that they can use to trick unsuspecting targets. If the trick works, the target becomes a victim.
Once a person becomes a victim, they usually become aware of the fact that they have been scammed. Unfortunately, after this point, it is often too late to get the lost money back. This is often due to the fact that scammers often ask for the money in a way that is impossible to trace. It is a whole lot easier to prevent a scam than it is to fix things after a scam. This makes it all the more important for a person to be aware of scams and how they work.
The One Ring Scam
A new scam that is making its rounds around the country, is being referred to as the One Ring Scam. A scammer robocalls a series of numbers, all usually within the same area. The scammer lets the phone ring once or twice, and then hangs up. The process is usually repeated several times over the course of a day or two.
At first, this doesn’t sound like much of a scam, it sounds more like a prank call. However, all of this is meant to get the target’s attention. The hope is that the target will call the number back, where they will be asked to pay a fee for a long distance phone call. This “fee” gets paid to the scammer, and the target becomes a victim.
The scam doesn’t seem very effective at first glance. Most people don’t answer random numbers, and even if they did answer this call, they would just get hung up on. The trick with this scam is the repetitive nature of the calls. Many people might not answer a call from a random number, but after many calls from the same number, they may become curious. They may even think it might be important, after all, the person is really trying to get ahold of them. That is what causes most people to call the number back, and fall victim to the scam.
This is why the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is warning people about this new scam. It is rarely a good idea to answer a phone call from a number that a person does not know, and calling it back is an even worse idea. Currently, the calls seem to target certain regions all at once, suggesting that the scammers might be targeting area codes. The calls seem to be originating from the African nation of Mauritania with a country code of 222. A person is advised to ignore any phone calls with this country code in the phone number.
Learn to Avoid Scams and Report Them
If a person wants to avoid being scammed, then they need to learn how to recognize different scam behaviors. A big indication something might be a scam is if phone number is one the person doesn’t recognize. Another big indicator is if the phone number is from out of the country. These sorts of phone calls should often be avoided, no matter how persistent the caller may be.
If a person has received a scam phone call like this, than they should report it to the FCC by filling a complaint. Doing so can help put an end to the scam, and help protect other potential victims.