REPORT AS SPAM, BLOCK, and DON'T CALL BACK Those Annoying Call Spoofing Idiots

This has to be one of the most annoying scams ever. I may be in favor of SIM registration but you must realize it only reduces the chances of scams. Some people may still undergo the black part, buy multiple SIM cards, and not register them. Some of them may be hacked. However, without a SIM registration, I believe these SIMs can easily be blocked and marked as scams. Though, it might take more technology to trace them back. Right now, this is what's called the One Ring Phone Scam reported last June 2023.

How One Ring Phone Scam works

Scammers will typically use an auto-dialer to make mass international calls to numerous people at once. Spoofed phone numbers will be used to seem legitimate in the caller ID display. They will only allow the phone to ring once then hang up, prompting a missed call notification on your end.

If you call back, you risk being connected to an automated machine that will either ask you to stay on the line or connect you to a premium-rate number without realizing it. Such numbers will charge high rates for every minute that the call is active.

A sample conversation could look like this: “Hello….hello? I’m having trouble hearing you. Hello?” More recently, scammers are getting creative: “You’ve received a song from someone who loves you. After listening to this song, you will find out who sent this song as a gift.”

They will say anything to get you to stay on the line. These charges may show up on your bill as premium services, international calling, or toll-calling.

Fortunately, unlike the time I got phished on GCash (and I had to change my MPIN), I decided not to call back because I felt something was off. Good thing that I decided to Google "+1 area code" followed by "+1 area code scam" because I suspected something was off. Just as I expected, it was a scam. If the signal is really unusually bad--I do suspect that it must be in some very secluded location. I marked it as spam because it's really spam.

I talked with some Indian Filipino friends or their workers before. If I could remember, the son of an Indian restaurant owner talked about the 5-6 lending. 5-6 lenders go to obscure locations and tend to have no fixed location. It's because 5-6 lending is illegal in contrast to Indian Filipinos operating their restaurants. I even wrote about why it's a bad idea to try and get a loan from an Indian restaurant owner. I believe it's happened a few times or many times that an Indian restaurant owner is mistaken for a 5-6 dealer. It's because many of them don't accept cash and usually tend to bring a bag full of cash to the banks. I believe these scammers might be operating in some obscure location in one's area. In my case, I think they're probably operating in some remote area in Cebu Island for all I know. They have come up with some algorithm that makes it look legitimate when it isn't.

These guys are out to get vital information. I believe they could care less who they hit. The important thing for them is that they scammed someone. I believe these are people getting money to sustain illegal activities, a luxurious lifestyle, or both. I can't be certain but it's best to mark them as spam and block them. As the statement goes, "Curiosity killed the cat."

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