North Africa calling, but don’t get the hump over these calls!

Yesterday my wife received a call on our cellphone from +21694042821. It also came up on screen that the call was from Tunisia. (The first three numbers – 216 - also indicate it was from Tunisia.) We don’t know anyone in Tunisia and my wife wisely did not answer the call and shut it off. I then blocked that number and reported it to our provider (2°). I was thanked and asked to report any more similar calls. They checked that I had blocked that number.

Today my wife received a call from +2128336559. Unfortunately the last three digits are similar to her brother’s phone number. As her brother is very ill in hospital she thought it was him calling and without thinking she answered the call. As soon as she realised it was not him she rang off. I was out but as soon as I came in I blocked the number and rang 2°. You may have noticed that the first three digits of this latest number are 212. That’s because the call was from Morocco! 2° advised that a charge of $2.88 had been incurred. As a kindness they said they would delete the charge but if happened again, we pay!

Maybe their friends in Nigeria, West Africa have been giving them ideas so be warned. We were lucky that the calls were to our cellphone which identified the callers’ numbers. Interesting to think what would have happened if they had come in on our landline with no caller id. No doubt there would have been some sort of scam they would try and perpetrate. It is also interesting to wonder how they selected our cellphone number.

Just be aware!

(If you do not know how to block a number on your cell phone ask your provider. As there are so many types of phone, if I try and explain here it may be different on your phone and cause confusion).