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In recent months, cases of calls from fraudulent numbers have multiplied by dozens in a large part of the autonomous communities of Spain. Just yesterday we saw the case of 556, a number that pretends to be from Sanitas and other derivative companies and whose purpose is to obtain a certain benefit from the user. Now it is FACUA itself, the non-governmental organization for consumer rights, which alerts about five telephone numbers whose prefix begins at 225, 233, 234, 355 and 387 due to a possible scam from countries of origin Africans and Western Europe.
Do not return missed calls from 225, 233, 234, 355 or 387
This is how FACUA warned yesterday. Apparently, many users have reported calls from phone numbers whose prefix begins in 233, 355, 225, 234 or 387.
As we can read in the original entry on the FACUA website, the numbers that begin with this type of prefix originate from countries such as Albania, Nigeria, Bosnia, Ivory Coast and Ghana, and they all belong to what is known as “ special rate numbers ”. This means that any call made from a mobile or landline line to any of these numbers will receive an additional charge that may vary depending on the country, the prefix and the duration of the call. You can see the cost of this type of prefix in this other article.
From FACUA they recommend to ignore this type of numbers and reject all calls that we receive from numbers with similar prefixes. If we have already returned the call and the billing of the mobile or fixed line for the last month has been affected, we can file a claim with the Consumer Arbitration Board or with the Secretary of State responsible for Telecommunications showing our disagreement with the amount owed.
Also from the FACUA itself they warn that our company is obliged to maintain the validity of the telephone line even if we stop paying the monthly payment corresponding to the month where the calls were made to numbers with special rates. As provided in the order PRE / 361/2002 of February 14 of the BOE, our operator will not be able to exercise the suppression of the current telephone line if we have presented a formal claim showing our disagreement through the aforementioned organizations.
