DALLAS (1080 KRLD) - It's been a popular question in recent days: "Why is someone from Sierra Leone calling me?"
The simple answer: They are trying to scam you.
It's all part of the "One Ring" racket, which originates in the West African nation of Sierra Leone.
Jonathan Nelson is with the nuisance and scam call protection service Hiya. KRLD News asked him about the current scam:
HOW DOES THE "ONE RING" SCAM WORK?
"The scammers are making a phone call from an area, in this case it's overseas, where they will call you. And they only want the phone to ring once, and then they hang up. The reason is, if you actually answered that phone call, they would pay for it. But as long as you don't answer the phone, it's free for them to make that call. What they want is that you're curious and you call them back. And when you call them back, they are going to try and keep you on the phone for as long as they can, because you're actually paying per minute as if it's a premium rate line, and you just don't know it. It can easily be several dollars a minute."
WHY SIERRA LEONE?
"This is actually the second wave we've seen from this scam. In both cases, it did come from countries in Africa. It's really just where these call centers spin up. So, the main thing to remember is this is probably a business doing this. They're collecting a paycheck. They're running this scam as a job. Looks like some new call center has started up, and has gone big."
ARE THESE ACTUAL PEOPLE MAKING THE CALLS?
"It's actually even easier than that. Most of them have automated tools for this. So, it's more like a room full of computers."
WHY ARE SOME TEXAS AREA CODES AMONG THE MOST POPULAR WITH THESE SCAMMERS?
"It seems the Texas area tends to get hit with a lot of these scams. Your area codes tend to top most of our lists. We see these scams where it appeals to a natural sense of trust. The whole Southern hospitality comes through, people are very polite, and they'd want to return back a phone call. They're sorry they missed it."
HAVE A LOT OF PEOPLE FALLEN FOR THIS "ONE RING" SCAM?
"Yes. That's the scary part. We do believe a lot of people are falling for this one. The best thing to watch for is if that phone number looks invalid or foreign and you weren't expecting it, please don't answer the phone. With this scam, it doesn't cost them anything to run this. They don't need operators. And they don't need a lot of people to fall for it to make this profitable."
HOW LONG DO THESE THINGS GENERALLY LAST?
"They will give up. We will eventually get a reprieve. If they stick around for too long, law enforcement tends to get involved, and that's the last thing they want. So, it usually goes on for about a week or two, and then they'll shut down operations and move somewhere else. They'll hide under a different business name and start up again."
DOES IT HELP TO BLOCK THESE CALLS?
"Not really. These scammers change which phone number they use quite frequently. You may not get a call from the same number twice, but it will still be from the Sierra Leone area."
WHAT's THE BEST ADVICE IN DEALING WITH THIS SCAM?
"The most important thing is don't call back a phone number you don't recognize. If they left a voicemail, you can listen to the message no problem. But don't call back a number at random, especially if it looks like it's from a different country."
Nelson said the 972 area code in the Dallas area and the 903 in northeast Texas are among those getting the most calls as part of this scam.
Listen to the complete interview in the audio below.