A foreign number is calling me: what to do and how to block it

A foreign number is calling me: what to do and how to block it

Your phone rings and the screen shows a number starting with a code you do not recognise: +44, +216, +1, +234, +62... You have no family or work in that country and you are not expecting a call from abroad. The question comes straight away: do I answer, call back or ignore it? The short answer is that answering costs you nothing, but calling back can, and most of these calls are after one of three things: getting you to call them back, confirming that your line is active, or drawing you into a conversation with a scammer. Here is how to tell them apart and what to do in each case.

Why am I getting calls from abroad if I don't know anyone there?

It is almost never personal. Your number is on lists that are bought, leaked or generated by trying random combinations, and automated systems dial thousands of numbers at once. These calls usually follow one of these patterns:

• A missed call designed to make you call back (wangiri). It rings once and hangs up. If you call back, you connect to a premium-rate or expensive international number, and part of what you pay goes to whoever runs the campaign. We explain it in detail in our guide to calls that hang up straight away.
• Checking for active numbers. Silent calls, or calls that hang up as soon as you answer. They mark your number as "live" so that it can be resold on other lists.
• Scams with someone on the line. On the other end is a person or a recording pretending to be your bank, a courier, tech support, an investment adviser or a recruiter with a job offer that is too good to be true.
• Spoofed numbers. The number on your screen may not be the real one. With spoofing, a caller can show almost any number, foreign or local. The dialling code does not tell you for certain where the call comes from or who is making it.

There are legitimate calls from abroad too, of course: a company with a call centre in another country, a relative travelling, a service that uses international switchboards. So the key is not the code itself, but whether you were expecting the call and what they ask you for.

Does it cost money to answer an international call?

On a South African cellphone, receiving a call on your home network does not cost you anything, whatever country it comes from: the caller pays. You are not charged for missing it either. It is different when you are roaming abroad, where receiving calls can cost money depending on your package, so check with your network before you travel.

The real financial risk is in calling back or dialling a number they read out to you. Some international ranges carry very high rates: satellite networks, special international services, or numbers in countries with high call charges. A common trick is to use codes that look familiar: +1, for example, is not only the United States and Canada; several Caribbean countries share it too, and calling them can cost far more than you expect. Remember that a real South African number starts with +27 (or 0 when dialled locally), and international calls from South Africa start with 00.

What are the warning signs?

• One ring and they hang up, or repeated missed calls at odd hours, such as the middle of the night.
• A code from a country you have no connection with.
• Silence when you answer, or an automated message asking you to press a key or "call back on this number".
• Urgency and pressure: "your account will be blocked", "you have a parcel on hold", "final notice".
• Requests for details or codes: passwords, PINs, card numbers, the OTP you just received by SMS.
• They ask you to install an app or visit a website to "verify" something.
• Job or investment offers you never looked for, often followed by a WhatsApp or Telegram message.

Any one of these signs is reason enough to hang up. Several at once all but confirm it.

What should I do right now?

1. Do not return the missed call. If it was important, they will call again or leave a message. No serious company works by ringing once and hanging up.
2. If you answer and were not expecting the call, give no information. Not your full name, ID number, banking details or codes. Do not press keys a recording asks you to.
3. Hang up and check for yourself. If they say they are your bank, a company or a government department, hang up and call the official number on their website, your card or your contract yourself. Never the number they give you during the call.
4. Look up the number before doing anything. Check the spam numbers directory to see whether others have already reported it, and use our dialling code guide to see which country it belongs to.
5. Block the number from your phone's call log.
6. Report it so that the next person who sees it on their screen knows what they are dealing with.

How do I block calls from abroad?

There is no universal button to block a whole country, but you can combine several layers:

1. Block specific numbers. On iPhone and Android you can block any number from your call history. It helps, although campaigns change numbers often.
2. Silence unknown callers. iPhone lets you silence calls from numbers that are not in your contacts, and many Android phones have a spam filter or an option to block unknown numbers in the Phone app settings. Silenced calls still appear in your log, so you do not miss anything important.
3. Ask your network. Ask your network's customer care whether you can bar outgoing calls to international or premium-rate numbers on your line. If you never call abroad, that way even if someone at home returns a suspicious call, no charge will be generated.
4. A caller ID app. NoCall shows you whether an incoming number has been reported by other users before you answer, which helps you decide in seconds.

No filter is perfect: scammers keep calling from foreign numbers, real or spoofed, so the habit of not returning unknown calls is still your best protection.

What if I already called back or gave my details?

It depends on what happened:

• You called back. Hang up as soon as you are suspicious. Check the length and cost of the call in your network's app or on your bill, and call your network to ask about the charge and about barring international calls. If you are charged something you should not be, complain to your network in writing and keep the reference number. If they do not resolve it, you can take it to ICASA, the communications regulator.
• You gave banking details or an OTP. Immediately call your bank's fraud line (the number on your card or in the banking app) to block cards and transactions. Change your online banking and email passwords and switch on two-step verification. You will find more about getting money back on our blog.
• You installed an app they asked for. Disconnect your phone from the internet, uninstall the app and, if it had remote control or access to your banking, contact your bank straight away.

In every case, keep screenshots of the call log, the number and any messages: they are evidence.

Where do I report it?

• SAPS: if you lost money or your details were used, open a case at your nearest police station with all your screenshots and proof of payment, and ask for the case number.
• Your network, for unexpected charges or to bar international and premium-rate calls; then ICASA if your complaint is not resolved.
• Your bank, always on its official number, if there are transactions you do not recognise.
• 10111 (or 112 from a cellphone): only for a real emergency, such as a threat to your safety.

Frequently asked questions

Can they steal money just because I answered? No. Answering a call on your home network costs nothing and gives no access to your account. The danger lies in what you do next: calling back, giving details, pressing keys or installing something.

Why do the calls always come from the same country? Because campaigns run in waves and reuse the same number ranges for days or weeks. If you see the same code over and over, it is an active campaign, not a coincidence.

What if the number shown is local but the caller talks about another country? It may be a spoofed number. The number on screen does not guarantee where the call comes from. Apply the same rule: hang up and check through an official channel.

Is blocking the whole code a good idea? If you have no connection with that country, it can be, although most phones do not support it on their own. The simplest and most effective step is to ask your network to bar outgoing international and premium-rate calls.

In short

An unexpected call from a foreign number is not a reason to panic, but it is a reason to be careful: do not call back, do not give details, hang up and check for yourself, block and report. Answering is free; calling back may not be. If a suspicious international number has called you, look it up and report it in the NoCall spam numbers directory: your report helps stop other people from falling for it.