473-520-9749
Grenada, GRENADA
 | ANonieMouse 2014-01-02 14:23:28 Unknown |
>>> I can probably thank the national no call database for this jewel <<<
Why do you expect a list to protect you against overseas calls from scammers located in areas not subject to US law? Does blaming this list make you feel better? I'd really like to know the psychological pathology behind this need to lay blame at the foot of the government.
Why do you expect a list to protect you against overseas calls from scammers located in areas not subject to US law? Does blaming this list make you feel better? I'd really like to know the psychological pathology behind this need to lay blame at the foot of the government.
| Rico 2014-01-02 13:57:59 Unknown |
Came in at 2am on 1/2/14. Didnt answer didnt call back. Thanks for the info.I can probably thank the national no call database for this jewel
| Steph 2014-01-02 06:34:08 Unknown |
Call @ 22:28 PST, did not answer, only rang once. Thank you again 800notes for helping me know these are scammers!
| S S 2014-01-02 05:31:50 Unknown |
Just got a call at 2330 hrs 01/01 ... did not answer it ...
| Becca 2014-01-01 17:11:36 Unknown |
Called 12:10 pm New Year's Day (473) 520-9749
Grenada
Grenada
| ANonieMouse 2014-01-01 11:27:37 Unknown |
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
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.
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
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.
| R F 2014-01-01 10:40:59 Unknown |
Same as many. Got the call, never heard it. Since I don't know anyone over there, I decided to look it up, and found this. Wish there were something that could be done, they always target people like the elderly. Going to block it from my parents' phone
| Kellie 2013-12-31 15:57:16 Unknown |
Received at 5:16 am. Not cool! Caller ID says "Grenada."
| PTM 2013-12-31 15:48:05 Unknown |
This number called me at 6:14 am today. Fortunately I didn't answer it. Get the word out to your friends and family.
| Cinder 2013-12-31 15:31:01 Unknown |
Called at 7:12 this morning, didn't hear it so I didn't answer. Yup the do not call list isn't working very well.
| kkimball 2013-12-31 14:05:27 Unknown |
Called my cell at 4:30 am today...thank goodness my phone was turned down and in the other room!
| Steve 2013-12-30 21:15:15 Unknown |
Received a call at 4:23 am
| eddiensd 2013-12-30 05:58:17 Telemarketer |
Just received a call 9:55pm 12/29.
| AZ 2013-12-29 16:49:33 Unknown |
number has called a few times at 4 in the morning
| Brad 2013-12-29 15:32:28 Unknown |
Called me at 3:58 am
| DW 2013-12-29 03:44:19 Unknown |
I never answer calls, especially outside my area code, that I don't recognize... This number had a '+' in front of the number which definitely aroused suspicion... I always look up the numbers on this site... Glad I did... I agree with FV and the idea that your carrier could penalize them for these calls...
| TC 2013-12-28 22:37:07 Unknown |
Also got a call today (12/28) around 4:36PM CST. Did not answer as it is likely a scam since it originates from Grenada.
| HB 2013-12-28 02:47:21 Unknown |
I got a call from this number at 12:47am today. I didn't answer... but would if I did? Anyone answer these rude, low level humans?
| KT 2013-12-27 19:56:31 Unknown |
Got a call from this number at 4:54 this morning on my cell. Caller ID said call originated from Grenada so I did not answer. No message. By the looks of this thread, it's a good thing I didn't answer.
| KevinVA 2013-12-27 16:13:52 Unknown |
Neither does it apply to scammers... It only applies to those that actually follow the law and have something to lose, such as nonprofit organizations.
| ANonieMouse 2013-12-27 13:33:35 Unknown |
>>> So much for the Federal 'Do Not Call' List I am on. <<<
Grenada is a sovereign nation beyond the reach of US law enforcement. Certain members of Congress may want to keep it that way, because it has been (and probably still is) a tax haven for many companies.
>>> Too bad there wasn't some way we could charge them for these calls. It could work something like this - you get a call, you don't answer, you look it up on line to get a sense its a scam. You call your cell or local carrier, key in the offending number and a code given by your phone company. the offending caller gets charged some nominal amount, $25, $50 or? and all of it goes to your favorite charity. If these callers can extract money from us, your phone company should be able to do the same to them. <<<
What happens the next time you dial a wrong number?
Grenada is a sovereign nation beyond the reach of US law enforcement. Certain members of Congress may want to keep it that way, because it has been (and probably still is) a tax haven for many companies.
>>> Too bad there wasn't some way we could charge them for these calls. It could work something like this - you get a call, you don't answer, you look it up on line to get a sense its a scam. You call your cell or local carrier, key in the offending number and a code given by your phone company. the offending caller gets charged some nominal amount, $25, $50 or? and all of it goes to your favorite charity. If these callers can extract money from us, your phone company should be able to do the same to them. <<<
What happens the next time you dial a wrong number?
| ash 2013-12-27 13:19:57 Unknown |
12:06am on 12/27
| Elaine 2013-12-26 22:08:14 Unknown |
I received a call from this number on Christmas morning around 5:30 am...Thankfully I was asleep so didn't answer
| peter 2013-12-26 16:24:44 Unknown |
Got a call from this number luckily I was not able to answer, I was going to call back but first decided to look it up and ended up here.
| Robert sarringhausen 2013-12-26 00:48:18 Unknown |
Got call from this number bout 20 minutes ago didn't answer it
| Is 2013-12-25 23:33:32 Unknown |
I got a call at 4:32 pm 12/25/13 unfortunately if they are international the do not call list doesn't apply to them
| FV 2013-12-25 22:05:58 Unknown |
Got the same call, 12/25/13 around 1:50PM. I don't answer calls from unrecognized numbers. So much for the Federal 'Do Not Call' List I am on. Too bad there wasn't some way we could charge them for these calls. It could work something like this - you get a call, you don't answer, you look it up on line to get a sense its a scam. You call your cell or local carrier, key in the offending number and a code given by your phone company. the offending caller gets charged some nominal amount, $25, $50 or? and all of it goes to your favorite charity. If these callers can extract money from us, your phone company should be able to do the same to them.
| Lynn 2013-12-25 17:51:01 Unknown |
at 5:40 am on Christmas Morning this number called me. thankfully I have my phone turned off to unwanted phone calls from people not in my address book until 9am. This is so sad! Because I would have jumped out of bed to answer it thinking something bad happened to one of my family memebers.
| win Adams 2013-12-25 16:54:44 Unknown |
I received a call from 473-520-9749 at 10:18 am on 12/25/13. didn't recognize it so didn't answer it. I have my cell # listed on the do no call cell phone site
| anon 2013-12-25 16:11:01 Unknown |
Grenada (area code "473") international calling charge scam. You may be charged an exorbitant rate if you call this number back to find out who was calling you, with some of the proceeds going to the party at the number you called.
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