268-762-0076

I picked it up without looking to see the number, almost broke my neck getting to the phone.  I said hello a couple times and no responce on the other end. When are the phone companies gonna do something about this???

Called it back, disco music and voice telling me to wait for an operator. Bullsh*t

Hang up call at 6am.

I have been getting a call a day from this on my cell phone. I suspect they are trying to get you to return the call and hit you with some automatic carges. Is there a way to block this call?

Hang up call...tried to call it back..wouldn't let me says unable to??

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 one 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.  The first wave of these calls came from Grenada (which has a 473 "area code"), but more recently, a large number of reports have been received reporting similar calls from Dominica and several other Caribbean nations.

In what is apparently a second current version of the scam, some reports in 800notes.com assert that people who have been called by some of these numbers have received large charges on their phone bills despite never having called the number back.  To the extent that these reports can be taken at face value, you may have to either block calls FROM any or all of these countries AT YOUR PHONE SERVICE PROVIDER.  If your phone service provider cannot do this to your satisfaction, you may be forced to switch to another phone service provider to avoid this scam.  Software solutions or external hardware that relies upon the delivery of a caller ID number to "hide" the fact that someone is calling (e.g., immediate pick-up and hang-up) are NOT likely to work.  That is because the software on your phone actually connects the call for a very brief period of time when it picks up the call and that is enough for your phone company to notice the connection and to charge you for receiving the call.  (I have no knowledge of whether call blocking by iOS 7 from Apple works this way or not.)  Using silent ringtones may not work, either, if the call lasts long enough to be diverted to voice mail for even a single second.  Call your provider NOW and ask for a solution to reject these calls before they start.

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 Caribbean 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.

Rang twice Hangul

I missed the call.  It shows the call was from Antigua/Barbuda.  

Late night, no message

At 7:55 AM, PCT, received a one-ring call from this number with a location of Antigua, Barbuda.  Didn't answer. no message.  SCAMSTERS!!!

Just call your phone provider and give them the #. The same scenario just happened to me. I know globe trekkers and am accustomed to getting unblocked calls from weird area codes. But like you, I can not let this stand.

please block this phone number form calling my phone number.

I have gotten several calls from this number 268-762-0076. I googled it and it says it's a scam call coming from the Caribbean. I thought you should know. I have not answered the calls and I called my phone carrier (AT&T). They didn't seem to know what to do. Sounds like AT&T, right? LOL...

Unwanted calls to both cell phone and house phone. If you answer, phone rings somewhere else using my phone minutes.

Received a call from this number at 1 am rang twice , I answered line was dead .

I receive a call from Antigua/Barbuda at 11:03 a.m. on January 28, 2014 from this number.  I missed the call and never called it back.  Just wanted to report it.

this number amongst others with the SAME area code have been calling my phone. MORNING (5:30 AM) and NIGHT ((PM-11:30PM) at least 3 times a week for the last 3 weeks.. its very irritating. and like everyone else here, there is never anyone else on the other end.. it needs to stop and its [***] [***]!

Just received a call from this number, didn't answer thank goodness.

Received a call on my cell a 2:25 pm.  Rang twice and hung up. Didn't leave a message.  From Artigua/Barbuda

I got a call from the number. I didn't answer it because I was in class. Tried to call it back and was told I didn't have acess to this number.