The phone rings. You pick it up and notice a number appearing on the display that begins with a “strange” prefix: +353. It is the area code for Ireland and unless you have friends and relatives in theEmerald Isleit is almost certain that there is a scam attempt behind that phone call. There are several reports received by the editorial staff from readers who have received scam attempts with phone calls from numbers with an Irish prefix. To protect yourself, we suggest that you do not answer these phone calls and, above all, that you do not call back the Irish number that contacted you, if the call consisted of just one ring. In the latter case, in fact, you risk being a victim of the so-called “wangiri”, a scam that has been claiming more and more victims over the last few months.
How the Irish area code scam works
Let’s see in more detail how the Irish prefix scam works. As you have understood, it all starts with a call (or, sometimes, a message) that refers to attractive offers: easily accessible job positions, quick earnings, unexpected rewards or communications that seem urgent. The trick works because it leverages curiosity and the speed with which we are led to respond. Often it is not even a real person who contacts us: on the other end of the phone there is a pre-recorded voice inviting us to carry out actions. What these actions are depends on the variant of the scam that is served to us.
In one scenario, for example, you might receive an invitation to add the number to WhatsApp and continue the conversation there. Once contact is made, criminals guide the victim to forms to fill out or sites from which to download information. And this is how they could trick the potential victim into getting into trouble, for example by providing personal information (which would lead to identity theft) or by downloading malware, which will then be used by cyber criminals to intercept banking passwords, personal data, etc.
Then there is a more subtle component, the one linked to the aforementioned wangiri, a Japanese term which means “one ring and off you go”. In this scheme you receive only one ring from the +353 area code, which is too short for you to have time to answer. The goal is to get the user to call back to figure out who it was. But calling back that number would incur significant charges on your telephone bill.
How to protect yourself from the +353 area code scam
To protect yourself from the +353 area code scam, follow these simple and effective tips:
- If you have no contact with people in Ireland, do not answer calls from numbers with the +353 prefix and, above all, do not call them back.
- Activate the anti-spam filters present in most modern smartphones: these tools automatically recognize suspicious numbers and can silence or block potentially fraudulent calls.
- Pay particular attention to links received via messages from Irish numbers: clicking them can be enough to compromise a device. For this reason, do not open any links for any reason.
- To prevent your loved ones from falling victim to similar scams, share this information with them. In fact, telephone scams that exploit the Irish prefix (or other foreign prefixes) are highly effective, especially on those who do not know the mechanisms behind these attacks.
