Don't call back unrecognized numbers; it could cost you a lot|Betty Lin-Fisher

Local reader E.B. Wilson used to return all phone calls on her cellphone without really looking at the phone number or thinking about it.

But she’s changing that habit after getting a surprising Verizon bill for about $750 for a call she inadvertently returned to India — and which Verizon said lasted 207 minutes.

Her experience is also a good warning to beware of the one-ring scam, which I wrote about several years ago. Back then, consumer advocates weren’t quite sure what the catch might be to a person getting a one-ring call to their phone with no answer or with a strange "can you hear me." Some questioned whether scammers were recording people saying "yes" to trick them somehow.

More: Betty Lin-Fisher: Be careful of ‘Can you hear me’ calls and how you respond

Wilson, 77, explained it this way when she reached out to me at the end of February:

“About a month or so ago, my Verizon cell rang and I just answered it without looking at the number — and no one was there. My routine is just to hit a redial, as I often can’t move fast enough to answer. No one answered, so I hung up and I looked at the number and it had 12 digits, not nine. I did not know this meant outside the U.S.,”

Wilson said there was no way she was on the phone with India for 207 minutes, since she remembers hanging up on the empty phone call and calling a local Italian restaurant right afterward to order some takeout.

“I never thought of it again till I got a phone bill for over $700, which is on dispute with Discover,” Wilson said.

Wilson shared a copy of her January Verizon bill, which showed the 207-minute call to a 12-digit number, and then also other local cellphone calls also within that same time period.

When I reached out to Verizon, spokesman Andrew Testa said it was likely that Wilson’s call was part of what’s being called the Wangiri scam.

Wangiri is a Japanese word meaning "one (ring) and cut,” Testa said. “It’s a telephone scam technique where your phone rings once and then stops, in hopes that you will call the number back. If you do call back, it goes to a high-cost international number, meaning you will be charged for that call, and the scammer will make money.”

Federal Trade Commission warning

The Federal Trade Commission has also warned of these one-ring scams.

“For illegal robocallers, the goal isn't always getting you to answer. Sometimes, it's getting you to call

“One-ring calls may appear to be from phone numbers somewhere in the United States, including three initial digits that resemble U.S. area codes. But savvy scammers often use international numbers from regions that also begin with three-digit codes — for example, "232" goes to Sierra Leone and "809" goes to the Dominican Republic. Scammers may also use spoofing techniques to further mask the number in your caller ID display,” the FTC said, referring to fake numbers.

The FTC said if you call back, you risk being connected to a phone number outside the U.S.

“As a result, you may wind up being charged a fee for connecting, along with significant per-minute fees for as long as they can keep you on the phone. These charges may show up on your bill as premium services, international calling, or toll-calling,” the FTC said.

Variations of this scam rely on phony voicemail messages urging you to call a number with an unfamiliar area code to "schedule a delivery" or to notify you about a "sick" relative, the FTC said.

Verizon response

Testa said Verizon “is working to protect our customers from Wangiri scam calls, but some calls do go through while Verizon's analytics are detecting the fraud campaign and working to put call blocks into place. Verizon will not charge you for calls back to Wangiri-identified numbers.

He offered these tips for Verizon customers, which were similar to ones offered by the FTC as well; most of the tips could also apply to other cellphone providers:

• Turn on ‘International block’ in the Call Filter app if you don't normally receive international calls (this will block all international calls, even ones you may want to receive).

• Don't call back any unknown numbers or any numbers that don’t appear to be a 10-digit U.S. number.

• If you do call back and hear a suspicious message, hang up immediately. The longer you stay on the phone, the more you are being charged.

• Report the phone number as a scammer through the Call Filter app or at VoiceSpamFeedback.com.

It took Wilson a little time — and lots of calls initially to Verizon and Discover and then emails with me back and forth to Testa, who directed Verizon customer service representatives to call Wilson — but eventually, it appeared that Verizon credited her bill and her Discover account also looked OK.

Testa also said Verizon investigated the 207-minute call that was logged on to Wilson’s bill, even though she said she had hung up immediately after returning the call.

“We've investigated the issue and found that the extended international call was an error. We worked with Mrs. Wilson to resolve the issue to her satisfaction and helped to add International Call blocking to her account,” he said.

New habit

Wilson said she’s learned a hard lesson and is grateful she won’t be responsible for the charges.

“I get regular nuisance calls on my landline, people pretending to be from some official place to get my credit card number, surveys, solicitors, etc. I do not get many calls on the cellphone that I do not know the caller. That is why when my phone rang while I was moving things in the garage I could not answer quick enough but soon redialed without looking. I got no answer and hung up and then looked at the number. I saw about 12 or 13 digits on the number but did not know what it meant at the time.

“I won’t do that again. Verizon was good enough to put a block on out-of-the-country calls for my phone. I don’t know anyone outside the country. My new practice will be not to answer a call I don’t recognize the number. Check if they left a voice message, if not, no call back. This last month since this has started has been frustrating and stressful,” she said.

Beacon Journal staff reporter Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Calling back unrecognized phone numbers could cost a lot