There is a natural temptation to return a missed call.

Often, you reckon that the person making the call was flashing, that peculiar Kenyan habit where someone draws your attention by calling you and terminating the call before you answer.

Unfortunately, having unsuspecting subscribers return missed calls from strange international numbers is one of the ways fraudsters are currently minting millions of dollars. Kenyans have been victims of the fraud, known as Wangiri  is on the increase.

Wangiri is a Japanese word meaning ‘one ring and cut’. The aim of the fraudulent missed call is to prompt the recipient to call back premium rate numbers in countries with a high cost of phone charges globally.

Returning such a missed call could cost about KES500 per minute or more. Money that is deducted from airtime while the mobile phone operator is also billed international interconnection fees.

The Safaricom Newsroom spoke to Thomas Bwaley, Manager, International Voice services at Safaricom, who has seen this scam grow and has practical advice about how to avoid falling for it.

Watch the video below for more.