cell phone scam calling the number back charges you a 1.99 a minute to Grenada. Don't get hacked over by this Report it and block this number if you can.

Received (missed) call.  Did not call back.  

recieved a call at 7:03 pm did not pick it up tried to call back but carrier did not allow so i googled it and ended up here!

Also received call from 473-405-0178 on Jan 9, 2014 at 8:42 a.m. while at work. Since my phone is on vibrate I didn't notice it until later as a missed call. I never call back numbers I'm not familiar with. Anyway, just Googled it today and found this site. Good to know.

this appears to be the "Grenada Phone Scam" in which they call early in the morning hoping you will call them back opening yourself up to a massive charge for calling their number. apparently it is any phone call coming from the 473 area code.
do a net search for "473 area code" or "Grenada Phone Scam."

Just got a call from this number, left no message

Rung one time and stopped from Grenada

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.

Received a call at 9:05 a.m. today.  Did not answer.  Saw it was Granada so it is suspicious.  Added to reject list.

Received a call early this morning, but did not answer and there was no message.  Location says Grenada

Just had a missed call from 473-405-0178. Tonight at 7pm Unfortunately i had no idea about this scam until i. Called the # back twice all i heard was a click both times . Then i googled the number and saw this site. I am with straight talk which runs on verizons network.

Got the same just around the same time i was getting a ton of calls about payday loans, so i knew it was a scam, then saw the grenada show up, so i knew i def didn't know them, do not return these calls, it is a scam, but u can do what i did, it is the most legal and lethal way to stop them, plus it is free: http://www.fcc.gov/complaints

473-405-0178
Called 2min ago. Hung up before I answered. Checked to see where area code originated- Grenada, like the others on this site. A-holes.

Just got one of these calls half an hour ago from +473 405 0178 which as noted above is from the country of Grenada.  I called my provider AT&T to advise them.  It rang one time and as I went to answer it it stopped ringing and I accidentally and unknowingly hit call back.  Got the mumbled bits others mentioned and I immediately hung up.

Did a reverse phone look up - not known.  Googled the country code and found it was Grenada.  That took me to the other postings about the scam.  The AT&T custoemr rep did not seem aware of this scam - which apparently is still going on with this number - however was very helpful in noting they would look at my account and block any charge for calling this number.  She also reported it verbally to their fraud department.

I have seen a lot of posts wondering why the phone providers "can't do something about this".  It might be helpful to understand that unless they know a specific telephone number is an issue, they cannot and should not block calls all from an entire country code or exchange.  The people doing this are sophisticated enough to constantly generate, probably automatically, new phone numbers from these countries and use them until they are individually blocked.

Likely the best course if you get one of this calls is to reject it.  If you call back as I inadvertently did I suggest you immediately call your provider to let them know.  One note:  The AT&T phone rep could only see my calls through last evening.  I have made several today so I suspect that data base updates over night.  They promised to call back tomorrow to follow up.

Forgot to mention that my phone shows this to be from Grenada.  I suppose somebody trolling for live phone numbers?

This is a scam originating from Grenada (area code 473), Dominica (area code 767), Jamaica (area code 876), and probably several other Caribbean islands.

Please read ANonieMouse's post in the Forum for more information about this scam:
"WARNING: DO NOT RETURN ONE-RING CALLS FROM ANY CARIBBEAN ISLAND AREA CODE"

http://800notes.com/forum/ta-92b032348a92026/ ... sland-area-code

Interesting it was 3 minutes ago for you.  I just got a call from this number also.  I answered it and was promptly hung up on.

Received a call from this number on my cell phone.  It rang twice and then stopped.