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Have you been affected by the Liberian phone scammers?

There have been several reports of people around Ireland receiving phone calls as part of a 'Premium Callback' scam.
Members of the public are getting calls from Liberia, with the prefix +231. The phone only rings a couple of times to leave a missed call on the phone. When the person rings the number back they are charged a premium rate, even if they're not on the phone for long.
The calls are coming at unusual times during the day, and people who return the call run out of credit or see a big rise in their phone bill. In some cases those who ring back hear a false 'operator' that tries to keep you on the line for as long as possible. 

Meath Crime Prevention is urging people to be wary: "We are getting lots of reports of scam telephone calls being received in the past couple of days. Your phone rings briefly, you miss the call and then you ring back to see who it was. You will be connected to an answering machine that wastes your time while your are charged a fortune.

"These are premium call lines with foreign country codes. If you get one of these missed calls from a strange number don't ring back - ignore it - unless you really want to waste your money!"
There are also reports of calls coming from other countries such as Austria (+43), Comoros Islands (+269), Morocco (+212), Ghana (+233), Chad (+235), Canada (+1) and Ivory Coast (+225).
Tom Butler, public affairs manager with Comreg, says there is an easy way to avoid being scammed.
He said: "So when the number comes up, if you don't recognise the number let it ring out. If it rings out after one or two rings it's most probably a scam call.
"And if it doesn't leave a message for you to ring back, do not phone unless there is a genuine reason to ring the number back, don't ring it back."