Posted on 01/31/2014 6:38:35 AM PST by Second Amendment First
If you receive a call on your cellphone preceded by just one or two rings, chances are it’s part of the new One Ring phone scam spreading across the U.S. faster than a summer wildfire.
Here’s how it works: International scammers have programmed computers to blast out millions of calls to cellphone numbers, ring once or twice, then disconnect. The objective is to make you curious enough to dial that number back.
The “gotcha” happens when you return the call. You’ll be charged $19.95 for the international call fee itself and $9 per minute thereafter. “Oftentimes consumers say they hear music and then advertising, so they think nothing of staying on the phone. It’s easy to see how quickly charges for these international calls can add up," said Shelley Polansky, vice president of communications for Better Business Bureau Serving Northern Colorado and Wyoming
Consumers who have been duped by these calls report calls coming from Dominican Republic (809), Jamaica (876), British Virgin Islands (284), Grenada (473) as well as Minnesota and Canadian area codes.
If you think you’ve are a victim of the One Ring scam, you should immediately alert your phone carrier and keep an eye on your cellphone bill. If you have not already done so, opt out of all third-party billing to your phone.
LOL, I'm right there with you!! I certainly wouldn't dial back a number that I don't recognize - local or not.
What is it about cel phones that make people lose their minds? If I happen to dial a wrong number, notice it right away and hang up, it still registers as a "missed call" on the other person's line.
More often than not, the person immediately dials back and says, "You called me?".
I don't have a smart phone anymore. It didn't seem all that smart when it came to charges that could be put on my phone bill without me having an easy way to remove them.
LOL I have been hitting the block button even though I know they mimic numbers to get around that. My new ones are a “Senior Citizens security alert” and a “Personal Mobility” scam. We can’t easily turn our overseas calls off so we ignore # s or country codes we don’t recognize.
PFL
I got one yesterday from 268 762 0043. It rang once, and I did call back.
I just checked my account, and there are no extra charges there for that call.
It’s not the call to you that costs.
They want you to call them back, and they try to keep you on the line.
Drone Strike.
I don’t know what the attraction is.
I hate them and consider them a necessary evil.
Hubby gets annoyed if I don’t answer when I’m out shopping.
That’s the whole point of my “Gone a’Viking” trips alone.
I want to be alone and unbothered.
A cell phone is an electronic leash.
I *rarely* dial anyone and if I do, it’s the autodial feature on some store’s website so I don’t create many wrong numbers, myself.
I have gotten them, though.
One guy repeatedly called my number for weeks, looking for his drinking buddy and got pretty upset that I wasn’t him and didn’t know where he was.
My phone works great as away from home internet and that’s about it...:)
*This message brought to you by somebody who works in an IT field.*
“Like the one yesterday from PAKISTAN telling me the Microsoft Server was getting error messages from my computer, telling them that my computer was being used by hackers to attack other computers. And that it was ruining my hard drive. And there was no software I could get to fix it. That they would fix it for free, but there would be a charge of....
I guess you can tell how that went. “
If I am not busy, I take the call and keep them on the line until I get bored. My record to date is 45 minutes. I tell them I cannot find the “any” key and can they help me.
If you punch the number into Google, it’ll tell you who called.
There’s also a list of known telemarketers that comes up regularly for a lot of them.
I know somebody whose voice mail message says “hi, you’ve reached _____. Please leave a message. There are several people I’m actively avoiding. If I don’t return your call, you’ll know you’re one of them.”
“I love wrong numbers.” - Ruthless People
HA!
Love it.
:)
LOL
I understand.
When I called back, I got a very low quality audio menu recording. It never identified a company or organization. A low-quality recording of a female voice said something like "to access our services, dial one for bla-bla, dial 2 for..."
I disconnected the call right after the words "dial one."
I don't see any evidence of a charge resulting from my outward-dialed call.
Two words: air horn.
It's a five year sign up (welcome to the wonderful world of lobbyists), so you may need to go back and sign up again.
Good.
It’s a sh!tty thing, because I don’t really think it’s illegal under the laws of where they’re calling from.
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