473-520-9750
Grenada, GRENADA
 | Nimrod 2014-01-06 02:30:14 Unknown |
Well said anon!
From the various threads I have sampled so far they seem to have been working a bank of numbers in the 473-520-97## range since November.
Check out the post by ANonieMouse at http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-473-520-9754/3#p658883862900089215 for a plethora of information about this scam.
From the various threads I have sampled so far they seem to have been working a bank of numbers in the 473-520-97## range since November.
Check out the post by ANonieMouse at http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-473-520-9754/3#p658883862900089215 for a plethora of information about this scam.
| ANonieMouse 2013-12-31 20:44:40 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.
| alberto 2013-12-31 20:18:05 Unknown |
this number call me at 7 and 24 pm, don't let message and I call back and sound busy...well I don't know.
| manuel 2013-12-31 02:41:51 Unknown |
Dec.30.2013 this f****ng number call at 11.pm they no say anything ... they call all the time ... i in Pr.
| Elg 2013-12-29 19:49:19 Unknown |
Phone call at 2:48 am. Not sure if it rang as it did not wake me up. Showed missed call this am
| Steve 2013-12-29 16:05:51 Unknown |
Got a call from this number at 2:30 AM. No message left. Pretty rude calling in the middle of the night.
| Mals 2013-12-29 12:12:10 Unknown |
Received a call from this number at 4 am. My phone rang once and hung up. I did some research on the number and some are saying it could be linked with the target debit/credit scam so keep a watch on your bank statements.
| matt 2013-12-29 01:34:04 Unknown |
They left no message on the call. Obviously, another Spam call. When I called back, the recorded message said "account not accessible".
| CB 2013-12-27 18:27:47 Unknown |
Received call from this number 45 minutes ago. Wanted to check it out before I called back. Turns out it's a long distance phone scam.
| AB 2013-12-27 17:32:30 Unknown |
received a call returned call put on hold hung up. Not liking what I reading about it so I called my provider to advise them of potential fraud.
| Jasper's mom 2013-12-26 18:06:42 Unknown |
My elderly mother's seldom used cell phone rang at 9:27 a.m. Pacific Time today. Any one who knows her, knows she'll not pick up the phone until closer to noon. The phone number was unknown; and no voice message was received. Speculated that it may have been a rare telemarketer dialing her number; we don't dial back unknown area codes and phone numbers; but suspect, from notes here, that it is an international phone charges scam.
| DocK 2013-12-26 14:41:35 Unknown |
Called at 9:17 AM on Dec. 26th. No message so not calling these bi****s back.
| anon 2013-12-25 19:34:40 Unknown |
Clarification:
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.
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.
| Amy 2013-12-25 19:32:07 Unknown |
Called at 2:50 AM Dec 25,2013. It rang two times then hung up. My phone says the call was from Grenada. Rude scam
| anon 2013-12-25 15:51:18 Unknown |
Grenada (area code "473") international calling charge scam. You may be charged an exorbitant rate for the call, with some of the proceeds going to the party at the number you called.
| Tweety Debbie 2013-12-25 15:31:34 Unknown |
I got a call at 12:07 am on Christmas day. It rang twice and no one way
there. I recalled the number and got music with a voice telling me to
hang on for an operator. I hung on for 10 minutes with no response. It
is not right to wake people at night with pranks.
there. I recalled the number and got music with a voice telling me to
hang on for an operator. I hung on for 10 minutes with no response. It
is not right to wake people at night with pranks.
| Sigma Blues 2013-12-25 14:31:23 Unknown |
They called at 9:30 am on December 25th 2013.... so i tried to call them back, but my cell service told me the number doesn't exist.
| ZS 2013-12-25 07:09:16 Unknown |
Call received at 1:21am Christmas morning. Saw the missed call but didn't hear it ring. No message left.
| D 2013-12-24 23:47:13 Unknown |
At 5:40 pm 24th Dec, 2013, it rang for a second and they hung up. That was all. I figured wrong number, but it didn't hurt to check here just in case.
| K 2013-12-24 14:08:46 Unknown |
Called and 6:03 am. Missed it. Looked on here and sounds like it's not important. Hopefully they don't call again
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