Wangiri Warnings in Poland and Paraguay

2020 saw no abatement in wangiri, with fraudsters continuing to pester victims worldwide in the hopes of luring them into making an expensive call to the missed number in their phone’s memory. New spikes in wangiri for consumers in Poland and Paraguay suggest there will be no relief from this scam during 2021 either.

CERT Orange Polska, the cybersecurity division of the Polish operator, used their website to announce (in Polish) the predominance of wangiri calls using numbers from the following countries:

  • +685 Samoa
  • +964 Iraq
  • +676 Tonga
  • +248 Seychelles

Meanwhile, the online version of Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color reported (in Spanish) on a series of wangiri calls using the +380 code for Ukraine.

Once again the telecoms industry is allowing its reputation to be dragged through the mud, as every wangiri warning reminds customers to use their phones less often. It is difficult to understand how much long-term damage will be allowed before more telcos take meaningful action to protect customers, and so protect their own sources of revenue.

Eric Priezkalns
Eric Priezkalns
Eric is the Editor of Commsrisk. Look here for more about the history of Commsrisk and the role played by Eric.

Eric is also the Chief Executive of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), a global association of professionals working in risk management and business assurance for communications providers.

Previously Eric was Director of Risk Management for Qatar Telecom and he has worked with Cable & Wireless, T‑Mobile, Sky, Worldcom and other telcos. He was lead author of Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers, published by CRC Press. He is a qualified chartered accountant, with degrees in information systems, and in mathematics and philosophy.