When it comes to telephone scams, Norway is the most exposed country in the Nordic region

Mobile phone carPhoto: Alexandre Boucher / Unsplash

Norway is much more exposed to telephone scams than its neighboring countries. In January, Telia blocked 4 million calls in Norway, compared to 2.6 million in Sweden.

In Denmark, 2.2 million calls were blocked, and in Finland, only 450,000, figures from Telia show.

The fraud in question is called wangiri, which means “one (ring) and cut” in Japanese. The scammers often hang up before you have time to pick up the phone. They make money when people call back, as callers are re-routed to a premium rate number overseas and are subsequently

charged for the expensive call. 

Telia has a system across the Nordic countries and the Baltics that monitors this activity and blocks such numbers both from calling people and from being called.

Too naive?

The scammers probably have a higher success rate in Norway, Øivind Kristiansen in Telia told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK).

“It may be that we are a little too naive and gullible,” he noted.

Frank Stien in the National Communications Authority has worked on the issue for many years. He describes it as a race – scammers often change phone numbers which makes it difficult to stop them.

“People are getting wiser, but on the other hand, the attacks are getting more cunning,” Stien added.

Kristiansen in Telia encourages people not to answer or call back unknown foreign numbers. 

“It costs nothing to answer these calls, but it can be expensive to call them back.”

Source : © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews

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