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On a recent Thursday afternoon, Yunus Mohammed, was rounding off a video editing project when his phone beeped.
He tried to answer the call after finding it was a foreign number – +88233010830. But just before he could press the answer button, the call dropped.
He tried to answer the call after finding it was a foreign number – +88233010830. But just before he could press the answer button, the call dropped.
He called back immediately. “I thought it was my boss who was away in Luxembourg calling,” he said.
The call went through. An automated white female voice responded,
taking him through a maze of instructions. By the time he figured the
call was a scam, he had listened into the call for a minute.
He was charged N250 for the call that lasted barely one minute.
He is one of the millions of mobile phone users in Nigeria targeted
by premium rate phone fraudsters in a new wave of callback scams
that could see Nigeria lose up to one billion Naira in one fell swoop.
The scam is set with foreign premium rate numbers. It beeps your
phone with the call quickly terminated, luring you to believe a foreign
contact is trying to reach you. Victims are those who call back. They
unknowingly pay heavily for the minutes spent on the call.
“+16644115003 called me and then cut off; I was
wondering if a lost and forgotten friend in Europe or America remembered
me. On calling the number, a voicemail from a white lady was giving me
instructions that I had won a certain amount of money that
I needed to clear. There and then, I realised it was a scam and I
was charged heavily from my airtime,” Kennedy Nsan, another Nigerian
victim narrated.
A part of the amount paid by victims is deposited in the accounts of
the fraudsters through a sophisticated telecommunication
revenue generation system. The revenue earned through the call is shared
between a local telecom operator and the owner of the premium rate
number.
A premium rate number attracts a high fee and therefore callers end
up paying high charges for the calls they make to this number.
Some genuine businesses earn decent income by promoting premium rate
numbers.
Wangiri
The fraud, which started over a decade ago is also known as the
‘Wangiri Fraud’ and originated in Japan in early 2000. ‘Wangiri’
literally means ‘one ring and cut’.
The Wangiri phone fraud involves a computer using certain phone lines
to dial numerous mobile phones numbers at random. The numbers appear as
missed calls on the recipients mobile. Believing a legitimate call was
cut off, or simply curious, victims are enticed to call back.
The victim is then charged the exorbitant fee set by the fraudster.
At a little cost, the fraudsters hire international premium rate
numbers for the scam that pays out up to N100 on every minute of
call received.
A 2012 report released by BICS of Begacom, Belgian Telecom Company, indicates
that in one attack targeted at Nigeria in 2012, the fraudsters
got 50,000 callbacks from Nigerian victims and 9,600 in another similar
attack.
It is almost impossible to quantify victims in the latest attack but
in the past two weeks, several users have complained of receiving the
missed calls and calling back.
Premium rate numbers are legal, making it difficult for operators to
anticipate Wangiri. An official of Airtel Nigeria – worst hit by recent
wave of Wangiri – told PREMIUM TIMES that whenever the networks senses an unusual activity on any of such lines, it is barred.
Telephone companies, in developed countries, usually offer blocking
services to allow users bar premium rate numbers. But these
blocking services are not available in Nigeria.
The Nigerian Communications Commission does not even acknowledge Wangiri as a scam.
“It is not everything you call scam,” Reuben Mouka, spokesperson of the commissioner said.
He argued that victims lose money on their volition and curiosity, by choosing to call back unknown missed calls.
“The man [fraudsters] did not force you to call back,” he added while blaming the networks for allowing the fraudsters access.
Global scam
On the eve of Easter this year, similar fraudsters, using the same
numbers – +88233010849, +88233010830, +88233010811 – targeted
53,000 Latvian Mobile Telephone, LMT, users. About 2500 customers were
defrauded.
To keep the festive feeling, LMT compensated customers for damages suffered.
The fraud has also been recently reported in many African and Asian countries.
Kamai Chilumbu, from Lusaka in Zambia, also narrated a similar fraud story to PREMIUM TIMES.
European countries have already taken stern action against Wangiri fraudsters.
In August, 2010, the London Metropolitan Police rounded up
nine fraudsters for a similar crime. But the fraudsters are recording
massive success in Nigeria and other countries where the law is not
stringent enough or authorities are looking the other way.
Mr. Mohammed, like many other victims in Nigeria, hardly reports these cases to the authorities.
“I do not trust the police to solve this kind of crime,” he said. “It is a waste of time to try to get my money back.”
“The number still flashes from time to time but I just ignore it,” Mr. Nsan said
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