The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has warned Kenyans over the return of the notorious Wangiri phone scam.
In a statement, CA Director General Ezra Chiloba noted that it had received confirmed reports of the through the National Kenya Computer Incident Response Team Coordination Centre (National KE-CIRT/CC).
According to the Communications Authority, the scam occurs occurs when scammers call your mobile phone, which rings once, and hang up before you can answer it.
“The scam is designed to lure innocent and unsuspecting mobile phone users to returning the “urgent” international calls upon which they are unknowingly redirected to premium numbers that drain their credit,” said Chiloba
“During the calls, users are made to listen to a recorded message so as to keep the caller connected. The longer the caller stays connected, the more money the scammers make. In such a case, post-paid subscribers are likely to be unaware because they receive their bills at the end of the month. The pre-paid subscribers can only lose as much as their loaded credit,” he added
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The Communications Authority further pointed out that many of the scam calls emanate from illegally purchased telephone numbers with codes from Peru (+51) and New Zealand (+64).
The authority urged Kenyans to avoid calling back any international numbers they do not recognize.
“If you happen to already be a victim, report the number to your service provider so that they can block the numbers. This stops other users from becoming victims,” said Chiloba
The Wangiri phone scam originated from Japan and is popularly known as “one ring and cut” scam – wan means “one” and giri means “hang up” in Japanese.
