What a One-Ring Call Is
A one-ring call, known in Japan as wan-giri, is the practice of letting a phone ring just once and then hanging up straight away. Because it leaves an unknown number in your call history, it is designed to make you wonder who on earth that was and ring the number back. The English term is one-ring scam, and it is a trick that causes trouble not only in Japan but all over the world.
One-ring calls come in many varieties, from those with nothing more than a sales motive to outright fraud in which calling back runs up an enormous charge. If a single unfamiliar number is sitting in your smartphone's call history, that may well be what it was.
Why People Make One-Ring Calls
Pattern 1: fraud built on premium call charges
This is the most dangerous pattern. The call is placed from a number abroad that carries a high call charge, and hung up so that you will call back. Do so and you incur a charge of anything from several hundred to several thousand yen a minute. Sometimes an automated voice comes on and tries to string the call out. Messages such as "Tadaima komiatte orimasu" (all our lines are busy at present) or "O-kyakusama no bango o kakunin shite orimasu" (we are confirming your number) play over and over, and the charges keep mounting until you hang up. This is the classic form of the one-ring scam.
Pattern 2: sales calls checking whether anybody is home
Firms that make sales calls sometimes use one-ring calls to sort out which people answer the phone, and are therefore worth targeting. Call back and a sales pitch begins: we are ringing about such and such. That in itself is not illegal, but it is a form of nuisance call.
Pattern 3: checking that a number is live
Fraud gangs sometimes use one-ring calls to work out which of the numbers on a list they have obtained are actually in use. Call back and your number is marked as live, which lands you on a target list for nuisance calls. After that you may find yourself singled out for phone fraud or persistent sales calls.
The Right Way to Deal With a One-Ring Call
Do not call back
This matters more than anything else. Never return a one-ring call from a number you do not know. Anybody with genuine business will either ring again or leave a voicemail message. You may worry about what happens if it was an important call, but if the matter really is important the caller is certain to try again.
Search the number
If it is preying on your mind, try searching the internet for the number in your call history. Where you find comments describing it as a one-ring call or a nuisance call, you can safely ignore it. A phone number lookup service such as Denwa lets you see what other users have reported.
Numbers to be especially wary of
Take particular care over one-ring calls from the following numbers.
- Numbers beginning with + (plus): calls from abroad. Returning them incurs international call charges. Country codes in Africa and the Pacific islands (+224, +232 and +674 among them) deserve special caution
- Numbers beginning 050: IP telephones. Because they are easy to obtain, they are often used as throwaway numbers for fraud
- An area code you have never seen before: a call from a region you have nothing to do with is quite likely to be a sales call
If You Have Already Called Back
Where you have returned the call without thinking, take the following steps.
- Hang up at once if an automated voice comes on. Listening to it only runs up the charge
- If a person answers and launches into a sales pitch, say you are not interested and hang up
- Never give out personal information such as your name, address or bank account number
- If a large bill arrives, take it to the Consumer Hotline on 188
- Check your itemised call record for charges you cannot account for
There is no need to worry unduly about having called back in itself. Merely placing a call does not leak your personal information. Where you have given personal details out during the call, however, contact the services concerned - your bank, your card company - and take steps to protect yourself.
Settings That Help Prevent One-Ring Calls
Preventing one-ring calls as such is difficult, but there are settings that reduce the harm they do.
- Turn on the iPhone's Silence Unknown Callers, which automatically silences calls from numbers not saved in your contacts
- Subscribe to your carrier's anti-nuisance-call service: Docomo's Anshin Security, au's Nuisance Call Repellent Service or SoftBank's Nuisance Call Block
- Install an anti-nuisance-call app such as Whoscall
- If you have no plans to make international calls, ask your carrier to bar outgoing international calls
For the settings in detail, see how to block nuisance calls. Setting up call blocking is the basic defence not merely against one-ring calls but against nuisance calls of every kind.
Cases Easily Mistaken for a One-Ring Call
Not every single-ring call is a one-ring scam. Some of them are as follows.
- A wrong number: somebody misdialled, realised at once and hung up
- A problem with the signal: the caller's reception was poor and the call dropped as soon as it connected
- A delivery driver checking whether you are in: drivers sometimes let the phone ring briefly to see whether anybody is home
When you cannot decide, searching for the number is the surest way to settle the question.
Who Tends to Fall Victim to One-Ring Calls
The people who come to grief over one-ring calls are those in the habit of returning calls even from numbers they do not know. The following groups in particular need to take care.
- Students looking for work: because they are waiting to hear from employers, they tend to return calls from unfamiliar numbers
- People who take many calls for work: not wanting to miss a client, they are sensitive to every incoming call
- Users of flea-market apps and online auctions: they call back on the assumption that it may be the other party to a sale
- Older people: a generation for whom the habit that a telephone is there to be answered runs deep
If any of that sounds like you, make a conscious practice of the rule that you do not return calls from numbers you do not know. If a call really matters, the caller will always ring again or leave a message.
Summary
Dealing with a one-ring call is simple: do not call back. That alone will keep you out of trouble. If it bothers you, search for the number, and once you have established that it is a nuisance call, ignore it. Even if you do call back, no great harm is done so long as you give away no personal information. Deal with it calmly. Sharing the rule with your friends and family - we do not return one-ring calls from numbers we do not know - lets everybody stay out of trouble together.