The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL), today requested people not to call back or send an SMS if they receive unknown international calls.

"The TRCSL receives several complaints in this regard. As soon as the telephone call is received it is disconnected and displayed as a missed call," TRCSL Deputy Director of Compliance, Menaka Pathirana said.

"Most of the people who received such telephone calls attempted to return the calls to the displayed international number. But they had been unable to contact the person who called. All these telephone calls are connected to telephone exchanges until the line gets linked to an operator.”

She said those who have IDD facilities via prepaid cards get disconnected while postpaid users get huge telephone bills. According to the complaints received by the TRCSL, several people stayed on the telephone line at least for an hour or more.

She said people were advised to send the received international number through 1700 via SMS to the operator and the operator will immediately block the number and once blocked no one could call the numbers.

These telephone calls received from an automated system from countries such as Morekko, Burundi, Somalia, Chad, Tunisia, Madagascar, Somalia, Kongo, Algeria and Mauri Tania have been blocked -- both the countries and the numbers. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)