It’s quite annoying to receive anonymous calls and later come to the realization that we’re being extorted. Congo nationals were really suffering in the hands of these fraudsters until the Electronic communications and postal regulatory agency came to their aid. A trail of missed calls that revealed scam activities was spotted across a number of the citizens. The telephone call has earned a nickname Wangiri, which is a Japanese term meaning ring and cut. Which is precisely what is happening to the Congolese nationals.
How the scam works
For this trick to work, a missed call is registered to your phone. The minute you call back this number, your phone is registered to a payphone. Automatically your phone starts being debited as a result of you making the callback. Another way is they leave a text message on a random phone, requesting you to call back. In the event of you making the call, the fraudsters make efforts to make the call last longer. As a result, the losses the caller experiences are ridiculous. According to a statement released by a Congolese regulator, the dialing codes were a match to those of Seychelles and Latvia.
Protection measures against scammers
The surest way to deal with these people is to completely ignore unknown contacts. In case you receive a text or a missed call from a number that you not know off, unless you want to be a victim of these scammers, just avoid the call or text. It is much clear that if someone is really in need of your attention, he will literally call you. Another way the Congolese regulator urged the citizens to do was to forward the tell phone numbers to Airtel Congo, Brazzaville 121, and 123 for MTN Congo. He further encouraged people to resist submitting their information to just any social platform they encounter.
5 other tips to avoid scam through calls
Do not pick on illegal robocalls
Always ask polite questions to callers from the telemarketers
Do not take calls from unknown numbers
Consider installing a call-blocking app on your phone to trap scamming calls
Do not give your personal or financial information like social security number, credit card number to strange callers
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