There has been a spate of phone scams concerning calls coming from abroad. There have already been several cases reported in the province of Granada.

The calls are coming from the African state of Burundi, which has a phone prefix of 257, from Lithuania (370) and Latvia (371) all using the same modus operandi: callig the victim and hanging up before they get the chance to answer it.

The victim, without looking too closely at the number, presses the call-back button. However, not only is it expensive because it is an international call, but also because the number is a special-rate number. The number called receives a percentage of the high-rate charges.

Just establishing the call costs between four and five euros and each subsequent minute costs 1.20 euros.

The advice that the Guardia Civil provides is do not respond to international calls, which might work with the average Spaniard, but a foreigner in Spain often receives calls from his home country, or abroad in general.

Our advice is, if it’s a bona-fide caller, the will try again later.

(News: Granada, Andalucia)