Called my cell number @ 9:58 p.m. on 1/1/14. Did not answer. Will block call.

473 "AREA CODE" WARNING -- DO NOT RETURN DIAL ONE RING CALLS RECEIVED FROM AREA CODE 473 !!!!!!

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.

What appears to have been the original version of the scam surfaced about 11 years ago in Japan and is known as the "Wangiri scam:"

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

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:

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

I don't think this problem is limited to or has anything to do with Verizon.  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:

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 473 numbers 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.

Thank you! Just blocked them

called me at 5:54am

Got a call this morning at 5:17 am from 473-520-9742 - doesn't Grenada know we are recovering from New Year's Eve?? Rude! LOL  Thanks for the advice!

Received a call from 473-520-9742 at 2:10 AM PST. The call came in once on each of our phone lines.

Noticed I received a call from this # 473-520-9742 at 11:38pm, only rang once, I usually don't answer or call back unknown numbers, but thought I'd look up the area code to see where the call came from, then I found this site saying it was spam/fraud alert. Glad I saw reports about the # a.d didn't end up answering or calling back.

Benny, you are lying and you know it. Your wife hates you.

one ring and hang up on my cell, like the others above.  definitely seems like a scam-spam call.  DO NOT CALL BACK!!  5:30pm EST, 12/29

Just a boiler-room call (ie, SPAM or con game of some sort) from St. George in Grenada. Treat it accordingly: block and delete.

Got a cell from this #. Caller ID Grenada.  Didn't answer!

This number called at 7am sunday morning.   don't call it back, from what I have read this area code is in grenada and charges 9.99 a minute like a 900 number

Idiots called my cell. Rang once at 1am in morning. Pissed me off I was having great sex with my wife to make a baby. Lost the mojo if you know what I mean.

WTF, it wakes up from an awesome dream this morning.

i just received this call too.  it was an unknown number on my company owned phone.  i have caller id on all my numbers, so before i called back i researched here.  Thank God!  i noticed it was a number from Grenada and all the comments here and i'm not calling it back.  i'm just wondering how they received access to my number.  

All
Got their call at 3:58 PM CST. checked it out and got this list
Just put the caller on your BLOCK CALLER list on your cell phone and they won't bother you anymore.

Got a call at 218 am, 27 dec from that exact number. I'm gonna call from a pay phone just to see who the f they are.

I got a call from this number at almost 10:42 pm - the phone woke me up, but I didn't recognize the number so I didn't call back.  Now that I see this post I will not call back.

Just got a call from this number not 5 minutes ago, it's a little after 5AM right now. Just like everybody has mentioned in this site, they let it ring once and then hang up. So upset, worked all day and night, was just getting in bed when these morons called. Scam for sure!

Do not call the number back. The scam is when you call the number you will be charged HUGE CHARGES PER MINUTE for the call.. Just like a 900 call. They purposely call, only let it ring once..they don't want to reach you... So you will call the number back! They make $$$$$$ every time someone calls and connects to the number...usually in excess of 9.99 per minute.

Got a call on cell phone from 473-520-9742 at 1:43 PM Dec. 26th. No message left.  From what I've read, it's a scam if you call back and you'll get charged a lot of $$ for making a call to Grenada.

no msg caller id Grenada

Got a call at 6:30something AM......Looks like scam call

Unknown caller dialed my cell phone from 473-520-9742.

The plot only thickens if you call them back.  Should you do that, you will probably find a charge of several hundred dollars on your next phone bill for an international call to Grenada (area code "473").

I got a call from this number @ 9:37 am (CST) I didn't answer, and they didn't leave a message.
And the plot thickins!

My call this morning came at 4:04 a.m.  !!!

received a call at 5:46 am from this number.  anyone who knows me well knows that i will rip them a new hole for calling me before 10am

Do Not Call