Getting Phone Calls From Morocco And New York? It Could Be A Scam

CENTERVILLE, Utah — It seems simple enough.

Your phone rings.

But only once.

You check your phone only to see a weird looking number you’ve probably never seen before.

It’s natural to think about calling it back, but it’s probably a good idea not to.

“This is called a 1-ring scam,” said Lt. Zan Robison with the Centerville Police Department.

Lt. Robison has personally received this kind of call several times recently.

He says he’s hearing from lots of people who are getting the same calls, sometimes dozens of them a day.

Lt. Robison told KSL TV the whole idea behind the scam is for the scammers to get you to call back.

“They’re hoping you’ll just look at it, see that you’ve got a missed call, and call back,” he said. “They’ll try to keep you on the phone as long as possible to try and accrue charges on that 1-900 style calling platform.”

The caller IDs that have been popping up lately are from Morocco or New York.

Lt. Robison said the best advice is to just ignore them.

“Unfortunately, some people will fall for this and possibly get a bill from their phone that they’re not expecting and have to dispute with your phone company. It’s really just a big inconvenience,” he said.

You can always block the number, but it seems like the scammer will just call you on a different number.

Like with many phone scams, you can just wait it out until they stop, or look into getting one of those robocall blocker apps.

If you do feel like you’re a victim of the scam, you can contact your cell phone provider to dispute any charges you might get.