WARNING: DO NOT RETURN ONE-RING CALLS FROM ANY CARIBBEAN ISLAND AREA CODE

CARIBBEAN ISLAND AREA CODE WARNING -- DO NOT RETURN DIAL ONE RING CALLS RECEIVED FROM CARIBBEAN ISLAND AREA CODES !!!!!!

Here is a warning 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. (See the warning from Verizon linked to above.)

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.

After I learned about spoofing, I gave up calling any number that appears on caller id.

Got a call from 767-275-9190 at 2:50am. I have straight talk down in Gulf shores, AL. Phone rang only once.

I received a call from the Grenada area but did not answer it about a week ago, Today I received a call from 664-412-0068 but missed that call also. How do we stop these calls? Do I need to change my number?

Dee, consider buying a call blocker, either device or phone.. Devices hold more numbers though.
IE: The T-lock Incoming PRO Call Blocker sells for under 60 bucks on Amazon and can block up to 1500 numbers.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=call+blockers

Changing your number is never a good idea.. You get someone elses old number and all its calls!

You need to set up your phone line to reject calls from the Caribbean. Call your phone company to find out how to do this.

There have been a few reports of people being billed for cellular calls to these numbers even though they only received a one-ring hangup and never called the number back themselves. It would be interesting to know what kind of phone you have if this happens to you. Contrary to some people's beliefs, malware CAN infect cell phones. If you had used a previously infected application or opened an email attachment that infected your phone, it may possibly be infected with malware that dials out after receiving calls from certain numbers or area codes. While this is not likely to be the case, it is a plausible scenario and probably should not be dismissed from consideration.  It is *extremely* unlikely that the call itself provided the infection.

So if you can, ask your phone company to block (i.e., reject) these calls BEFORE they get to your phone. If your phone company does not offer this service, consider switching to a phone company that does and that lets you keep your own phone number. Also, Android phones have anti-virus and anti-malware programs that you can download and run to help protect yourself from such problems, although I wouldn't necessarily trust them to be infallible. Apple has, in the past, seemed less willing to offer such apps through their app store. But I know from experience that at least one of their apps has been withdrawn from their app store for having unauthorized trojan-like behavior built into it.

On the topic of Android phones, consider downloading Call Confirm Pro (or similar apps) from the app store. Outgoing calls are blocked unless a physical person using that cell phone enters a password before placing the call.

It's not perfect but it does make it harder for someone to take control of your phone and place outgoing calls.

There is also this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zncrt8K_9Sg

Starting at 4:24 is relevant to cell phones, the whole thing is worth watching though.

All things considered, just don't return a call from an unfamiliar number.

>>> All things considered, just don't return a call from an unfamiliar number. <<<

But that's exactly the problem. People think their cell phones are just stupid devices that make calls, when in fact, they are complex computing devices that are just as susceptible to viruses and trojan horse programs as your home computer.

If there is a virus/trojan being spread, it almost certainly not being spread via phone calls, but rather by the opening of email attachments or the downloading of infected apps. These could automatically return certain numbers in the middle of the night, without your ever knowing it was happening, rendering your instructions completely nugatory.

It seems far-fetched, but it is far from impossible. There are some diabolical and cunning criminal hackers out there.

The truth is these scams will always work, because people will never learn.

'these scams will always work'? Uh...

Mid has a point.. the naive and gullible that scare easily, the person who just has to call that number back or answer the phone and can't stop doing so even when they don't know the number. :(  Sad..

They must work or they would not be calling. I view it the same way that I do with these bogus emails people received. A prime example is a friend of mine received an alleged email from Yahoo saying his account was hacked and he was told to change his password. Unfortunately, he followed the link provided in the message. He had no idea what happened until I received an email from his address with some odd website. I called and asked if he sent me a link and he said no. He told me about the email he received after I told him his account was hacked. I told him that he should not have followed the link. I followed by saying if he wasn't sure that he should have signed in the way he normally would and then change it. 

The truth is these scams take on all forms. Another example are people that have been robbed by those claiming to be the a utility company.

Let me repeat what I said about malware dialers possibly being triggered by one-ring calls, but in a different way:

https://blog.lookout.com/blog/2013/12/09/mouabad-p-pocket-dialing-for-profit/

The trojan program described in the above-linked article does not seem to be prevalent in the United States.  But don't forget -- what we may be observing here could be a brand new variant that is not yet recognized.