The Ministry of Interior's team of IT department would like to explain that a large number of Cambodians have received telephone calls from unknown numbers abroad and that this is part of a scam.
3:07 pm February 23, 2020 103

Phnom Penh: On the afternoon of February 23, 2020, the National Police Website received information from the Ministry of Interior's Information Technology Working Group on Citizens' Issues concerning a Missed Call Abroad Scam.

Currently, we observe that a large number of Cambodians have received telephone calls from overseas countries such as Malawi,Nigeria, Pakistan or Russia. At the same time, people seem to be wondering about these missed calls and are asking some of the following questions:
- Who made the call on their cell phone number?
- What is the purpose of those who are doing this?
- Is this phone number fraudulent ?

In order to answer the above questions, the IT team would like to briefly explain the following:

Calls using strange numbers you may not know is a Money Scam called "Callback Scam" or "One-Ring Scam". Callback Scam is a technique that debits victims' phone accounts using a service called International Premium Rate Number (IPRN). Organized criminal networks buy IPRN telephone services from international service providers to destinations around the world, including those from the Kingdom of Cambodia.

How can you lose money on your mobile account?
- Criminals dial in the victims' phone numbers from Malawi (+265), Africa (+27), Nigeria (+234), Pakistan (+92) or Russia (+7).

- After dialing in, they will disconnect the phone line that shows Missed Call on the victim's phone.

- When a victim makes a phone call, the service charge is expensive and automatically deducted from the victim's phone account.

Criminals will receive commission from mobile service providers.

What can you do to prevent scams (Callback or One-Ring Scam)?

When receiving an international call from a telephone number that you are not familiar with:

- Save the phone number and try contacting it via WhatsApp, Telegram, or SMS.
- Avoid returning the phone call as the number may be IPRN.
- Use mobile phone software to search for source code like TrueCaller.
- Report to your mobile service provider.
- Block suspicious phone numbers using existing software on your mobile phone.

Source: Cambodian Police website.

I've been getting loads of these. Was curious who was calling since I didn't recognise the country code so looked it up online and discovered they were calling from The Central African Republic. Ignored them after that.

Me too... +236, Central African Republic. Surprised those fuckers even have phones.

At that point I knew it was a racket.

This is Bangui, the Capital. It looks even worse than here

The advice how to avoid by the police is good.

Here is how to handle the Nigerian Prince/Minister/Bank Official scam for laughs.

It appears that the Wangari, or 'one ring and cut', scam originated in Japan, and has been operating for many years internationally with a good rate of success.

Got a missed call from overseas? Don't call back! 'Wangiri' scam on the rise leaving victims with hefty phone bills
By Lee Boyce for Thisismoney.co.uk
Published: 11:33 GMT, 27 February 2018 | Updated: 11:44 GMT, 27 February 2018

A growing telephone scam that originated in Japan could be catching out unsuspecting Britons, leaving them with hefty bills.

Called the Wangiri scam, it works by a fraudster calling a victim's mobile phone number and hanging up after one or two rings.

They then hope the victim will return the missed call.

But when the victim phones back, the fraudster uses technology to reroute the call to a premium rate number overseas, which can cost a fortune for every minute that the call is connected.

Victims are often placed on hold or played a long pre-recorded message to keep them on the phone and rack up higher bills.

Some have even reported being billed for calls that are several hours long, although they had hung up much sooner than this.
We received an e-mail from a This is Money reader saying: 'I keep getting repeat calls at 2 in the morning from a variation of a number I already blocked from Mali. What is this?'

It is likely that this is a Wangiri scam call. The scam is called Wangiri as it is the Japanese word for 'one ring and cut'.

In the past, Ofcom have warned about the scam after a spate of cases. Fraudsters use automated systems to continuously dial multiple mobile numbers at a rate of up to 3,000 numbers a minute.

There have been reports of customers being charged for a 12 hour premium rate conversation after dialling the number.

Mobile phone users on all networks are urged to watch out for the scam.

It says if you get an unexpected call from an unknown international number, you should not answer the phone, call the number back or share any personal information.

It is believed the phone numbers are bought on the dark web.

Some examples of countries where these calls have originated from include Comoros (+269), Cook Islands (+682), Liberia (+231) and Tunisia (+216).

According to the Fraud & Technology Wire, Wangiri fraud amounted to $2billion worth of losses globally in 2014.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bea ... -scam.html

Scammers and telemarketers are always calling I don't answer unknown numbers and if you call more than once and don't leave a VM I block them

Insider knowledge - telcos (certainly Smart) also block these numbers as they are reported, so eventually it gets strangled as a scam; but so many numbers, so little time.

You can block every no. that isn't in your contacts.

Good warning by the police.

In the old days of dial up Internet, scammers would put a worm program on a home computer. The virus would learn when the user was home and away. Then when the user was away, the computer would dial a similar long distance number and stay connected until just before the user came home and then self disconnect, thus racking up hours of long distance charges.

When I call Cambodia from my home number using VOIP, a random number appears on the recipient’s cell phone. Not sure it’s because of the carrier’s VOIP or the Apple iPhone to iPhone call generator that’s doing it.

In the old days of dial up Internet, scammers would put a worm program on a home computer. The virus would learn when the user was home and away. Then when the user was away, the computer would dial a similar long distance number and stay connected until just before the user came home and then self disconnect, thus racking up hours of long distance charges.

NEVER heard of this and how would it work? A computer cant dial a number, only software, (like skype) if it was set up could.
so ur saying when u have been off ur computer for xxx minutes, the computer would turn itself on ,log on to ur telephone software and dial some random long distance number an than just before you came back would what? turn off?
how would ur computer know just before you came home to turn it self off?

you could come home an see ur computer is running something
for real? LOL

anything to back this up?


I never call back anyone who calls me that i dont recognize the number,( which means anyone NOT in my address book)
figure if its important to them to contact me, they will call me back