473-405-0177
Grenada, GRENADA
 | Bonnie 2014-01-09 20:17:54 Unknown |
they call Louisiana too, no message left
| Bonnie 2014-01-09 20:16:35 Unknown |
I'm in Louisiana and got a call, didn't leave a message and I don't call back hang ups.
| Laticia 2014-01-09 17:40:25 Unknown |
This number called me at 4 am this morning
| T Jones 2014-01-09 17:38:02 Unknown |
About 5 minutes ago - rang once and then hung up.
| M 2014-01-09 16:48:14 Unknown |
Just got a call from this number, but didn't pick up, as I didn't recognize the number. Southern california
| JJCAL68 2014-01-09 16:23:32 Unknown |
2 mins ago in CT
| Frusterated 2014-01-09 16:15:14 Unknown |
I have gotten calls from this number and a Dominican number several times in the wee hours of the morning for almost a month now. I have never answered or called back. I have an iphone so I keep blocking them but they keep calling me with different phone numbers, I don't know what else to do than hit block for every number they are calling from, eventually I surely will block all the numbers they have............I HOPE!!!! So irritating, wish there was another way to stop them!
| Az 2014-01-09 16:06:45 Unknown |
Called me in AZ this morning. Sounds like a brilliant idea.
| kawani 2014-01-09 15:46:27 Unknown |
Just recieved a call from 473-405-0174. I am in WI. No name, no voicemail, no nothing. Checked to see where the phone number originated on the internet and found out it came from Grenada.
| JM 2014-01-09 15:35:51 Unknown |
Add PA to the list of states called. Had a missed call @ 1:11PM on my cell yesterday. Caller ID shows Grenada. No voice mail left.
| scott 2014-01-09 15:09:49 Unknown |
Called my cell in VA. No VM received.
| Dyna 2014-01-09 14:58:40 Unknown |
I just got a call and no voice mail left. You can add Florida to the list of states
| Julia 2014-01-09 14:49:00 Unknown |
Just got a call from this number, no msg left.
| Ohiouser 2014-01-09 14:32:58 Unknown |
I just received a call...add Ohio to the list
| Chicago area 2014-01-09 13:43:07 Unknown |
Add Illinois as well, rang for a second and then ended. no VM
| ANonieMouse 2014-01-09 12:58:53 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.
| Bud 2014-01-09 12:29:57 Unknown |
My phone just vibrated and said missed call @ 6:09. In Odessa TX
| Houston 2014-01-09 04:39:54 Unknown |
Rang twice. Hung up. On my cell. It's 10:30 pm central and woke my grandmother who's under hospice care. :/
| r 2014-01-09 04:06:35 Unknown |
Got a call no message
| littletownOregon 2014-01-09 03:38:10 Unknown |
The phone rang and they hung up without leaving a message.
| Larry 2014-01-09 02:57:29 Unknown |
Calling my cell phone in Indiana.
| Ray 2014-01-09 02:50:09 Unknown |
Just called me 4 minutes ago. No vm and only rang once. I googled the area code and this is what I find.
| Cheryl m 2014-01-09 02:49:16 Unknown |
Have been receiving calls from this number for past 2-3 weeks
No message ever left
No message ever left
| magic8ball 2014-01-09 02:14:24 Unknown |
I'm located in Utah. This number called my cell around 7:10 pm on Jan 8, 2014. Rang twice then hung up before I answered. They don't seem to have left a VM either.
| rwb arkansas 2014-01-09 01:43:28 Unknown |
got call from this # it rang twice then they hung up. whats the scam?
| MD 2014-01-09 00:30:12 Unknown |
Called let the phone ring twice then hung up. wont be calling back
| WSU 2014-01-08 22:12:45 Unknown |
I got a call from 473-405-0177 @ 11:07 in Wichita on January 8th, rang twice and hung up. And this to your state list.
| oregonguy 2014-01-08 21:48:56 Unknown |
rang twice....no message....scammer!!
| pa-user 2014-01-08 19:23:31 Unknown |
I got a call from this number half an hour on my cell. It hung up after my phone rang once. I never even had a chance to pick it up. although I don't answer unknown numbers anyway, so it didn't matter.
| oklahoman 2014-01-08 18:00:05 Unknown |
I just got a call from this number. Read online about the 473 area code scam. All of the news stories were about people in Utah, but I live in Oklahoma. Other people in Oklahoma got the call too.
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