Home / Advisory / Its easy to fall prey to ‘Wangiri’ or the ‘One Ring and Drop’ form of Cyber Attack: 5 (five) Action Point to Protect against the Scam

Its easy to fall prey to ‘Wangiri’ or the ‘One Ring and Drop’ form of Cyber Attack: 5 (five) Action Point to Protect against the Scam

Posted on
Cyber Secure India
‘Wangiri’ or the ‘One Ring and Drop’ form of Cyber Attack on the rise.

“Wangiri” is Japanese for “one ring and drop” is the new form of Cyber Scam, which is prevalent today. If you get a call from an unfamiliar number that rings once and hangs up, it is your Curiosity that can get the better of you, as you would like to know who called (especially when you one notices an international number).  Such scams can sometimes pinch a huge hole on your pocket.

This form of Cyber Scam goes by several different names — the missed calls scam, the one ring scam, the ring and run scam, and the dial-and-disconnect scam — and in all of them, it is the money that you lose.

Earlier, this scam was routed through some well identifiable countries. However, with the advent of sophisticated VOIP features, the caller is able to manipulate and display the desired ‘country code’ on the receivers Calling Line Identification Presentation (CLIP).

The TRAI being the Telecom Regulatory body in India have issued advisories to ensure safety of their customer, however, the subject Cyber Scam is on the rise, these days and the resolution of such complaints is beyond the ambit of LEAs and Regulators.

“If your phone rings once and then stops. If this happens to you and you don’t recognise the number, do not return the call. You may be target of a One Ring Phone Scam,” says the advisory.

“The scammers engage people in long duration calls to earn money, or even push malicious codes into the smartphone, thus disabling the disconnection of the ensuing call,” the advisory also said, that calls were mostly irritating and if the receiver answers the call, the call goes silent with no response from the other side. Hence it is advised that “The receiver should not return such calls”.

“If your cell phone rings, but before you can answer the caller hangs up, it might be tempting to call the person back (especially if you aren’t sure who it is), but it is a new scam we are hearing about and you should think twice,” said the advisory.

5 Point Actions to Protect against the ‘Wangiri’ or the ‘One Ring and Drop’ form of Cyber Scam

So, what can you do to minimize the risk from this scam? Here are 5 key actions:

  1. Activate Calling Line Identification Presentation (CLIP) on your phone. Also there are provisions on recent smartphones to also flash the country and city of the calling number.
  2. If the phone only rings once and you don’t recognize the number, don’t call back, especially if the Area Code displayed is a Non-Domestic Number.
  3. These calls are mostly executed through Apps and Digital Controls; hence even those messages recorded on your pre-activated ‘Voicemail’ also need to be handled with adequate caution.
  4. Activate ‘instant billing’ alerts or SMS services for ‘charged details’, for each billing or deduction from post-paid accounts.
  5. Use the ‘Block Caller’ facility and also report such numbers to the Service Provider for essential Blocking or Blacklisting.

Remember, money once lost to such Cyber Scams, cannot be recovered. Also for the fact that an FIR will not heed any results, as the scamster or attacker in most cases is beyond the in geographical borders and out of a specific jurisdiction and also for the fact that the transfer of money is not refundable due to international regulations.

Top
%d bloggers like this: