473-405-0175
Grenada, GRENADA
giesdorf
giesdorf
2014-01-27 19:59:40
Telemarketer
Such a nuisance!
m ruby
m ruby
2014-01-20 18:21:57
Unknown
called my cell on Jan. 8, 2014
Irritated
Irritated
2014-01-18 01:21:18
Unknown
I totally think it is! My phone number is on my yahoo account (which was hacked today) and my target acct is associated wih that email! I just got en email this week from Target stating our emails, addresses and phone numbers have all been compromised and now I'm getting calls from the Dominican at 4 am and Grenada! It rings twice and no messages are
Left.
BeAware Please
BeAware Please
2014-01-16 02:10:51
Unknown
Could this be part of that Target Credit Card Breach???? Think about that!
southfla
southfla
2014-01-09 17:17:37
Unknown
Received a call from 4734050175 at 8:42AM EST no voicemail

Googled the number saw this and decided not to call back because even though I actually know one person In Grenada right now, I'm sure it's not them.
pritam
pritam
2014-01-09 16:26:29
Unknown
some stupid grenda call
ANonieMouse
ANonieMouse
2014-01-09 16:16:28
Unknown
CARIBBEAN ISLAND AREA CODE WARNING -- DO NOT RETURN DIAL ONE RING CALLS RECEIVED FROM CARIBBEAN ISLAND AREA CODES !!!!!!

Here is a warning (which happens to be from Verizon) concerning the Caribbean Island area code scam.  Note particularly the subsections entitled "Pagers" and "E-mail" near the top of the page:
http://www.verizonenterprise.com/solutions/pu ... phone/index.xml

The Verizon web page also references an old Scambusters web page explaining this scam that appears to have first been written around 1999:
http://www.scambusters.org/809Scam.html

In the current variant of this scam, the caller doesn't have any intention of talking to you. All the scammer wants is for you to get upset enough about the late night call that you return the call, never even noticing that it is from a foreign country outside the reach of US or Canadian laws. When you return the call (at international rates), there may also be a big surcharge added to your phone bill that gets passed along to the scammer.  Many of these calls come from Grenada, but more recently, a large number of reports have been received reporting similar calls from Dominica.

What appears to have been one of the earliest reports of the original version of the scam (unless the original publication date that I gave of the Scambusters report is actually correct) surfaced about 11 years ago in Japan.  There it became known as the "Wangiri scam:"

From Japan Times
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2002/08/21/n ... r/#.Ur2543-9KSN

See also, from the Economist
http://www.economist.com/node/1367988

A few U.S. news organizations, but not many, have picked up on this latest variant, at least with respect to Grenada area code 473:

KPVI, Pocatello, ID TV report on Grenada phone scam
http://youtu.be/eSp9tY1gBW8

From Toledo News Now
http://www.toledonewsnow.com/story/23695832/b ... huge-phone-bill

An older report from WCAX-TV in Burlington, VT describes the scam:
http://www.wcax.com/story/15581487/check-your ... area-code-scams

The biggest news organization to date that I have seen recently running a story on this scam is KSL-TV, Salt Lake City, Utah:
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=28211799&nid=148&titl ... _cid=featured-3

In fact, Salt Lake City has either been specifically target for this aggressive scam, or at least the local law enforcement agencies and phone companies have a heightened awareness of it, as indicated by these two reports from KSTU Fox 13 news in Salt Lake City:
http://fox13now.com/2014/01/02/victim-officia ... targets-utahns/
and
http://fox13now.com/2014/01/02/police-warn-ag ... -473-area-code/

I don't think this problem is limited to or has anything to do with any particular cell phone provider.  The same problem has been reported on other carriers, I believe, but Verizon Wireless appears to be the biggest carrier, so they get the most calls.  Verizon has a discussion board set up with at least one thread concerning "473" calls from Grenada:

https://community.verizonwireless.com/message/1035009

It appears that at least Verizon is devoting some resources to stop these callers or at least refund some or all of the charges for people who call these numbers.  How long that will last is known only to Verizon, and even they may not have decided at this point.  Other carriers may also be doing the same.  They all want to avoid bad publicity that may drive away customers, of course.

At least one early report on 800notes.com, if taken at face value, asserted that a charge of $100.00 was made to a phone bill for calling back for 15 seconds.  Even regular calls to Caribbean Island numbers, for example, are billed at upwards of $1.80 per minute by most cell phone carriers, even on so-called "unlimited" phone plans, unless you have paid extra for an international dialing plan.  It may be that the scammers get a cut of this money for every international call they receive.

That's why either:
(1) you can't return the phone call, because even though you would otherwise be able to dial it like an ordinary long distance number, you phone company has a restriction on your placing international calls (which these are).  At least some pre-paid cell phone services work this way.  If this case applies to you, consider yourself lucky. Or,
(2) when you call back and get through, the operator of the 473 phone number tries to keep you on hold for as long as possible to run up your phone bill and their profits.

The scammers don't have to be associated with recent security breaches, such as the recent one at Target stores.  (In fact, many of the victims of this scam say that they either don't shop at Target or did not shop there during the period of the known security breach.)  All the scammers have to do is randomly dial a lot of telephone numbers in already-assigned area codes. And they must be dialing a LOT of them based on the complaints logged to 800notes.

It probably doesn't cost them anything to dial you, either, if the called party (you) doesn't pick up the call before they hang up. It only takes a small percentage of angry and/or curious people calling back for them to make a lot of money. They don't even have to pay for real people to operate a call center -- it's all done by machines, outside the reach of US and Canadian law enforcement.

So do yourself a favor and don't call these scammers back.  And you'll also be doing us all a favor, because they wouldn't call anyone at all if there weren't so many people who fell for this scam.
pritam
pritam
2014-01-09 16:14:23
Unknown
i did the same.
Annie
Annie
2014-01-09 15:26:31
Unknown
No message. my phone says call from "Grenada".
Brian
Brian
2014-01-09 15:03:17
Unknown
Creepy.
SRQME
SRQME
2014-01-09 06:33:04
Unknown
Got a miss call from this number.. Non-listed number when I search number and area code .. Says it's from "GRENADA".. Very creepy!!
Chelsea
Chelsea
2014-01-09 04:55:01
Unknown
Just missed a call from this number and googled the area code..apparently there is a phone scam coming from this area code. I didn't answer or call back. Weird.
Samantha
Samantha
2014-01-09 04:38:00
Unknown
Call from Grenada? Didn't answer
That Girl
That Girl
2014-01-09 04:29:35
Unknown
Just got a phone call, rang once and hung up
Todd Fannin
Todd Fannin
2014-01-09 04:00:10
Unknown
Rings a couple times and no one there when pick up.
Jason
Jason
2014-01-09 02:38:03
Unknown
got two calls from this number, said Grenada, picked up twice, hear nothing.
Raven
Raven
2014-01-09 01:10:26
Unknown
Just got this too. Buzzed my phone (it's always on silent). Says it is from Grenada.
Something seems hinkie-dai dai.
raja
raja
2014-01-09 00:27:47
Unknown
same no i got a missed call.
Mr Mumbatu
Mr Mumbatu
2014-01-08 22:49:56
Unknown
Call says it originated from Grenada. Did not answer.
a
a
2014-01-08 22:04:01
Unknown
I just a call from this number.  Rang a couple times, and hung up before I could see number.  No message left.
1-855-641-3225 1-416-942-5827 1-646-727-7937
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