268-762-0079

I had a missed call from this number today. They didn't leave a voice mail.

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.  Many of these calls come from Grenada, but more recently, a large number of reports have been received reporting similar calls from Dominica.

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 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.

Just got two calls at 9:15  read the note below and found it's a scam..do not call back!

I've received 2 calls in 3 days from this number.  It rings briefly, then goes to missed call.  I do not give my cell out to anyone and yet I am receiving this call.

only got one call this am - did not answer and will not  - how do we stop these or is it possible?

Looks like another long distance scam, like the 473 area code.

Got a call from this number. Could not return it. So that is good. It just goes to a busy signal.

I got a call 5 minutes ago from this number and answered, they hung up right away

Been getting these calls. SCAMS from Caribbean. Pls don't pick up. Just block the number. To read more, look below.

I got a call this AM but didn't answer. No voice mail. Glad I found this site to help explain it.

Less than 1 second ring, and they hung up.

also got a call from this number, no answer, no message

Also got a call w/no voicemail from this number today. I was affected by the Target info breach, wonder if they got my # that way?

Got a call today and didn't pick up - no voicemail. Glad I came here and read the info about the scam. I wasn't part of any security breach (like Target) that I'm aware of.

I also got a call from this number at 1:44pm 268-762-0079, showed it was from Antigua/Barbuda.

I just got one, but didn't answer because my father just told me about this scam!

got a call from this number at midnight! Hubby tried calling back before I read this and he just got a recording saying it does not accept incoming calls... we shall see.

I received two missed called from this number today. I didn't returned call , but check the number on google first and seen this information . ... Beware !!!

I got a call from this number at 8:26 this morning and they didn't leave a message. I don't give my number out, so I'm not really sure they got my number. If I'm not sure who's calling me I don't answer and wait for a voicemail. I'm glad I do that now!

Got the call, didn't answer. Didn't leave a message.