Phone scams are on the rise. Every day, scammers try to extract money from us using more and more ingenious methods. A specialist in this type of scam shared on Info signal cheats the phone codes that according to him we should be most wary of.
If your phone rings and a number starting with + 229 or 00229 is displayed, scam specialist Anthony Legros recommends being extra vigilant. This code is that of Benin, a country from which many phone scams originate, as we can read on the site Scam signal information. “The country is known for its significant cybercrime,” states the latter, listing the main scams recorded in this African country.
Beware of “grazers”
The ones that appear most often would be the so-called romance scams. A man, nicknamed “herder”, poses as a potential lover, establishes a relationship of trust with his victim in order to extract money from him by inventing lies that justify this need for money.
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Then there are fake lotteries, calls from fake notaries or bailiffs, who claim that the victim has won something, but in order to receive his winnings, he has to pay delivery costs (taxes, transfer costs, etc.)
If a foreign code can alert you, it is not always so easy to spot scams. Some calls are made from French landlines or mobiles, and not all are identified as “potential spam” by telephone operators. Additionally, some overseas-based scammers may use services such as the On/Off app that allows you to change the number displayed at the time of the call as Info Signal scams progress.
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In general, it is recommended that you never give out personal information over the phone.