Phone scam warning: If you get this phone call, do not answer it!

Over the weekend, a large number of Kiwis reported receiving weird phone calls from overseas numbers.

The calls are usually from numbers beginning with 0088 or 002, and are believed to be part of a "Wangiri" scam

"Wangiri" is a Japanese word meaning "one ring and cut".

Vodafone said it registered an increase in "Wangiri" attempts on its network, but have said there has been no security breach. 

"In this case the fraudsters have compromised the system that manages interconnect charges internationally (interconnect charges occur when different network operators transfer customer calls across their networks)," the company said.

"The best advice we have for customers is to ignore any calls that you wouldn’t otherwise be expecting from unfamiliar country codes. Let them go to voicemail. Do not call the number back."

Users who do call the number back will be paying a premium rate, and the fraudsters receive the cost per minute of that call.