473-405-0176
Grenada, GRENADA
 | ANonieMouse 2014-01-09 16:07:48 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.
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.
| reuabbw 2014-01-09 16:01:17 Unknown |
We have gotten calls from this number on both of our cell phones. just one ring.
| Save some nuclear warheads for scammers 2014-01-09 15:48:16 Unknown |
Cell, 7:45 am, hang up.
| John 2014-01-09 15:06:04 Unknown |
Just called me too. Now blocked.
| Verizon user - jc 2014-01-09 14:42:33 Unknown |
Got a call from this number at midnight! Scared the crap out of me. I never call back a number I don't know or who hasn't left a message so I had no intention of returning the call. Just curious as to who it was...glad I checked.
| Pat 2014-01-09 14:23:39 Unknown |
This morning I discovered I had a call from this number, so I Googled it. How did they get my number? Yesterday there was a post on Facebook that cell phones were going 'public', and we should call the National "DO NOT CALL" number to be blocked. The beginning of another scam!
| TMobile Cell 2014-01-09 13:45:51 Unknown |
Called at 6am and woke my baby. Thank SO MUCH.
| Another ATT Cell User 2014-01-09 13:25:47 Unknown |
Just received a call from this number with my caller id showing Grenada. Rang one time and they hung up with no voicemail.
| ATT Cell User 2014-01-09 13:09:31 Unknown |
Missed Call from 473-405-0176, caller ID says Grenada, after reading the posts, I will not return the call and blocked the number!
| Ella 2014-01-09 04:50:14 Unknown |
Didn't answer, but wrang once then stopped.
| Cesar 2014-01-09 03:26:54 Unknown |
Got a missed call from this number too. Tried to call back, but no success.
| Erik 2014-01-09 02:25:11 Unknown |
Got a call from this number so I called it back, and I couldn't hear what the auto voice said I called back...it charged me .89 cents per call and I called 3 times not knowing..3$ but seriously!
| Obama 2014-01-09 00:41:44 Unknown |
I'm about to go NSA on whoever is calling from Grenada
| Lori 2014-01-08 22:54:40 Unknown |
My fiance just got a call on his work phone; did not answer. Stated is reporting to his boss & superiors as he works for a public utility. People that do these kind of calls are messed up!!!
| It's Me 2014-01-08 21:57:33 Unknown |
Got a hang up call from this number. Was about to answer and after one ring they hung up. Very odd that it says the call is from Grenada. I don't know anyone there...and don't understand why someone would be calling me from there. Apparently police are warning about scams coming from this area code: http://fox13now.com/2014/01/02/police-warn-ag ... -473-area-code/
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