I don't get a lot of phone calls. In general, my incoming calls are from my parents or someone like the vet confirming an appointment.

For the most part, the phone calls that I get are either from numbers that I know well or local numbers.

So, imagine how perplexed I was today when I got incoming calls from Lithuania and Cuba in the span of only about 10 minutes. Even stranger was the fact that my phone only rang once each time.

It turns out that our local phone numbers are just the latest to land on the list of increasingly clever scammers.

According to AT&T, the "one-ring" or "Wangiri" scam is specifically designed to peak your curiosity and get you to call the number back to try to find out who is trying to call you and why.

But when you do call back, the clock on the cost of an expensive international call starts ticking on your phone bill.

In general, I usually figure that if a call is important, the caller will leave me a voicemail, text me, or email me.

If I don't get any of those things, I just assume that it couldn't have been all that important.

In cases like this, the FCC suggests that you simply don't call phone numbers back that you don't recognize.

You can click here for more on the Wangiri one-ring phone scam from AT&T and click here for more from the FCC, and be sure to let your friends and loved ones know not to call these numbers back.

 

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