In times of Covid spread, ‘one ring phone scam’ surfaces in Kashmir

Srinagar: The Cyber Cell of Jammu and Kashmir police Tuesday sounded an alarm over the “one ring phone scam” urging people of Kashmir not to return missed calls or to respond to the calls from unknown international numbers. The Cyber wing termed it as “global scam, which has got active for Kashmir also” where scammers give missed calls to people, to irritate them and engage them in long conversations to make huge bucks.
The scam has come at a time when Kashmiri people are fighting the deadly pandemic COVID-19 that has claimed 47 lives and affected over 4000 people.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Cyber Police Cell Kashmir, Tahir Ashraf here on Tuesday said that just a day after “one ring phone scam” stepped into Kashmir, they got active and started taking measures to counter the same.
“We have issued an advisory for the people how to deal with the scam,” he said. The advisory issued by the Cyber wing reads: “If your phone rings once and then stops. If this happens to you and you don’t recognize the number, do not return the call. You may be target of a one ring phone scam.”
The advisory further reads that one ring call may appear to be from the international number. For countering the scam, the advisory states that “don’t answer ore return any calls from number you don’t recognize, report that number as a spam. Before calling unfamiliar number, check to see if the area code is international. Always be cautious, even if a number appears authentic.”
The SSP Cyber Cell said that it is a global scam active across the world where scammers engage people for long durations to make easy money. “Since international calls are costly, the scammers engage people and earn money. By engaging people for long durations over phone, they can access bank accounts and steal the money as well as phone numbers are linked with the banks of the people across Kashmir,” he said.
He said if people counter this issue, they should immediately contact their service providers to ensure that the number is marked as a spam. “People of Kashmir should also follow twitter handle and Facebook account of Cyber Cell J&K police for regular updates about how one ring scam can be countered effectively,” the police officer said