What is Wangiri fraud?

Wangiri (Japanese for 'one ring and cut') is a phone fraud where scammers place missed calls from premium-rate international numbers. The victim sees a missed call, calls back out of curiosity, and gets connected to a premium number charging very high per-minute rates, which the scammers split.

How does the scam work?

Attackers mass-dial thousands of numbers letting them ring only once. They bet a percentage will call back. The numbers usually have obscure international prefixes that look legitimate. Some variants use SMS with the same goal.

How to protect yourself?

Don't return calls to unknown international numbers, check the country prefix before dialing, block suspicious numbers and report them to your carrier. Companies can set outbound international call restrictions to avoid fraudulent charges.