Surely it has happened to all of us that we have received an erroneous call from a person who has been confused when dialing a number and coincidentally finds our mobile or landline. A most common and harmless situation. But beware, if we receive calls or messages with the 212 prefix, it is quite likely that we could be victims of a scam.
Where is the prefix 212 from?
The prefix 212 is an international telephone code that a few years ago alerted authorities such as the Civil Guard of possible telephone scams and smishing, a variant of phishing, a term that refers to attempted scams by sending SMS. To be more exact, the prefix 212 is an area code belonging to Morocco .
It is important to keep in mind that together with the 212 prefix, the local telephone prefixes vary according to the geographical location of the number. These are those associated with Morocco and that accompany 212 at the moment of seeing them reflected in a received call or message:
- Casablanca (+212) 520
- Marrakesh (+212) 5243
- Youssoufia and Safi (+212) 5246
- Beni Mellal, Berrechid, Mohammedia, El Jadida, Jouribga, and Settat (+212) 521
- The Kelaa des Sraghna (+212) 5242
- Laayoune, Agadir, Ouarzazate, Dakhla and Essaouira (+212) 525
As you may have noticed, all the prefixes start with the number 5, which indicates that the numbers correspond to local lines. But do we have to be careful if we receive a call or a message with the 212 prefix?
Alert: possible scam with prefix 212
It is not something new. The Civil Guard has been warning for years that insistent calls from numbers beginning with the prefix 212 are intended to get money through special rate numbers. So, unless you have a friend, acquaintance or relative living in Morocco, be wary of these calls and do not answer them. Neither to the possible SMS that can reach you.
It is an action and form of fraud in organized groups whose plan is to make a large volume of calls so that the recipient feels the need to return them and find out who they are. It is known as “ the missed call scam ”. The authorities have also warned on countless occasions that missed calls from the following prefixes are not returned:
- 355: Albanian
- 225: Ivory Coast
- 233: Ghana
- 234: Nigerian
Photo shared on Twitter by the Civil Guard
In many cases, it has been recorded that they also act by sending messages through instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp in order to achieve their goal. The worst of all is that if you return the call you do it to a paid number, which the cost per minute can become very high and trigger your phone bill. The best you can do is block it and ignore it . In both Android and iOS, if you click on the number, a menu is automatically displayed in which you can select the “block contact” option. On the other hand, block a contact on WhatsApp by following a few simple steps.
Now that you know the dangers related to the 212 prefix, among others, you can be prepared not to be a victim of a scam and fall into the trap of losing a lot of money by returning a fraudulent call.