473-520-9715
Grenada, GRENADA
Pearl
Pearl
2014-01-09 03:30:01
Unknown
Got phone  bill charged thirteen dollors thankfull for this sight they said i called them said from the carrabian now know from granada
ANonieMouse
ANonieMouse
2014-01-06 22:53:29
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.
Emily
Emily
2014-01-06 22:40:48
Unknown
Did you receive a charge for calling back?
HAH
HAH
2013-12-24 06:12:07
Unknown
Just got a call from this number, they they let it ring once and hung up. Makes me wonder if by calling them back they are somehow incurring fees or maybe cloning your  number. I'm not going to find out
Don Kelly
Don Kelly
2013-12-24 00:54:15
Unknown
No message, just hung up
Marcy
Marcy
2013-12-22 18:00:16
Unknown
I also got a call from 473-520-9715 at 7:45 am PST.  I don't know anyone in Grenada and didn't answer it.  No voice message left.  Usually I call back and hit *67 to block MY phone number.  Didn't do it this time.
jim
jim
2013-12-22 05:55:53
Unknown
I just received a call from same number also at 12:07am. Rang once and they hung up. I'm not sure what the scam is, but I have straight talk as well as some of the other people. did your husband get an answer when he called them back?
jim
jim
2013-12-22 05:55:06
Unknown
I just received a call from same number also at 12:07am. Rang once and they hung up. I'm not sure what the scam is, but I have straight talk as well as some of the other people.
Jughead
Jughead
2013-12-22 02:37:58
Unknown
Daughter's BF got a call from this number at 8:35pm in the Memphis area. No voicemail left.
California
California
2013-12-20 10:44:32
Unknown
Received this missed call at 9:36 PST. I googled the number  & found this site. Im glad that my phone was silenced when they called but I woke up at 0230 & looked at my phone - now its bugging me about what they may be up to... Thank you everyone for your input.
Kel
Kel
2013-12-19 04:41:46
Unknown
I first received a call from 473-520-9758 around 8:50 pm Dec 18 (Grenada).  My phone has the option to block the contact/caller.  So I did.  At 10:24 pm, I received a call from this number ( 473-520-9715)   I'm a sprint customer. So...how are they getting our numbers?  Robo-dialing?   It's annoying.   I refuse to return the call.  And I better NOT get charged for them calling my phone.  
Anon in WI
Anon in WI
2013-12-17 16:35:16
Unknown
I received a call from this number at 3:32 am on 12/17/13.  Caller did not leave a message.
angie
angie
2013-12-17 14:07:01
Unknown
this number call me at 1:00AM and its from Grenada..... so I called back and they told me to hold on so I figured its a scam.......who are this ppl ?
Stephanie
Stephanie
2013-12-17 03:17:27
Unknown
Oh it says it was from Grenada.
Stephanie
Stephanie
2013-12-17 03:16:41
Unknown
Just got a call from this number 8:13PM MST. No one on the other end. Good thing my iPhone allows me to block numbers from calling/sending messages...
Tammy
Tammy
2013-12-16 16:09:12
Unknown
Boston, received call 10:41 a.m. on my cell phone. It rang twice and hung up.  I'm glad I looked up the number before calling back.  Seriously,  I wonder what the heck these calls are all about? Thanks everyone for your input.
Keoki
Keoki
2013-12-16 02:16:03
Unknown
Rang once then dropped
Suew
Suew
2013-12-15 11:23:09
Unknown
Thank you... I received the call x2 at  2am ... I won't call it back
Kelli Stevenson
Kelli Stevenson
2013-12-15 07:46:39
Unknown
Received this call at 3am. Rang three times then hung up. Says Granada on caller and that is a cell phone.
GT
GT
2013-12-15 06:50:19
Unknown
Same as the rest, ph rang 2x. Probably scam. Grenada area code.
amber
amber
2013-12-14 16:58:52
Unknown
Had a missed call from this number at 0230 this morning
Ughhh
Ughhh
2013-12-13 04:02:10
Unknown
This number called me and I called back I was wonderin who it was so I googled it and found this website I hope they don't charge me extra that's bs im a single mother already having a hard enough time
808
808
2013-12-12 01:13:13
Unknown
just received a call from this number. no message. glad i read the posts. will not be calling them back and will not answer if they call back.
Chuck from Colorado
Chuck from Colorado
2013-12-07 15:30:51
Unknown
Got a call from this number.  Ask them to take us off their call list.   They called right back!!!!!
grayson
grayson
2013-12-07 14:04:18
Unknown
Call from this number at 0430 today. Did not return call.
Delaney&Malia
Delaney&Malia
2013-12-06 21:33:39
Unknown
Delaney got a call from this number and we called it back on the bus. It kept playing robotic music and said, "please wait for an operator" over and over. We listened for about 3 min. And hung up. I (Malia) tried calling it and my phone said it was an, "invalid number" ???
rueben
rueben
2013-12-06 14:02:21
Unknown
Got called from this # at 3.25am. I didn't pick up, but I was mad for being woke up at that time.
Skip47
Skip47
2013-12-06 11:00:58
Unknown
I got this call at 3:32 AM EST in Boston.  I was not at the phone and no message was left.  I thought the call was from country code 47 which I found was Norway.  Just to clarify how you can untangle these codes, the number is a regular 10 digit number that we all use in the USA.  I did not know this, but there is a North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA) which assigns these area codes to various countries and territories, which includes all of Canada, the US, the Pacific US territories of Samoa, Guam and the Marianas, and virtually all of the Carribean, whatever the original colonial power was, exclusive, of course of Cuba.  So all of this area can be dialed from a US phone just by dialing 1 and the 10 digit phone number.  You call Granada or the British Virgin Islands in the same way I would call Indiana or Springfield MA, dialing a 1 before the number.  

Anyway, fortunately, AT&T wouldn't allow me to just call back because the number was recorded on my phone without a 1.  Unfortunately, I have a couple of patients overseas, so I was afraid that it might be one of them, and so felt compelled to call back at first.  Bummer.
Danyella
Danyella
2013-12-06 03:50:42
Unknown
I have received a call from this number, but to be honest I do not know how many times it rang, since it was my sister who told me that I had a call. 7:39 pm in PST. I called back, which probably was not a good idea as all I got was a waste of five minutes listening to some sort of techno music that I've heard before on Pandora. My father has listened to this song before for sure. I heard some voices in the background as well, but I could not hear them clearly. My phone company is Verizon. If you find anything out about this number please feel free to email me at danyzavany@gmail.com
Jenna
Jenna
2013-12-06 01:16:05
Unknown
Called at 4:30 am and woke me up, called back and played dubstep music and said "please wait for the operator" and no one picked up. Shouldn't have called back, kind of creepy
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