[Hum]

A scam that repeats itself in modified forms every few years is once again spreading throughout the United States. Don?t be a victim!

 

Criminals target people simply by calling them. Intended victims receive a call on their phones from area code 473 which rings once and then disconnects, thereby arousing the call-recipient?s natural curiosity ? ?who just called me and from where??  Sometimes the caller actually allows the phone to ring long enough for the victim to answer -- after which the caller (or the caller?s robocaller system) makes groaning sounds or otherwise indicates that he or she is in distress and then hangs up, enticing the victim to wonder what is going on and call back.

 

If either of these happens to you ? don?t call back.

 

While area code 473 may appear to be domestic, it is not. This area code was created in the late 1990s for the islands of Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique, which, like the United States, use country code 1. Calls placed to 473 numbers are international calls and can be quite expensive ? and, because the criminals sometimes establish the number which the victim sees on his or her caller ID as a premium service number ? the rate can exceed $20 for the first minute!

 

473 is not the only area code from which this scam has been perpetrated. Beware calls coming in from area codes 809, 284, 649 and 876, which like 473 are international, and are known to have been used for similar scams. Of course, if you do not have a calling plan that includes calls to Canada, there are many other area codes for which you could be billed international dialing rates, but so-called ?one ring,? ?ring and run,? or ?dial and disconnect? scams are not typically perpetrated using Canadian numbers.

 

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[Hendrick]

Literally had one of these yesterday.  From 268 area code.

[CrashG]

Won't work on me. I only answer calls I'm expecting or from numbers I know otherwise you go to voicemail. I also use the SIT Intercept tone at the beginning of the voicemail recording to deal with robocallers. :shiftyninja:

[Hum]

Explains some of my strange cell calls.  :wacko:

[JustGeorge]

This was happening to my wife one night while we were on the road. They called dozens of times, with a live person, who didn't speak english on the other end. I have no idea what they were saying, but every time they called, I either cursed at them similar to what Tom Cruise did in Tropic Thunder or I screamed stupid stuff like "Hadouken!" or "Shin Shoryuken!" whenever they said something too me. Eventually I ran out of vulgarities, videogame/Movie quotes and finally blocked their number.

[Ruth Simmons]

They say the caller calls the victim and let the phone ring, just long enough to generate a missed call. It's designed to get the recipient to call back. Are telephone companies doing something about this?

[Ruth Simmons]

I found this thread at http://www.callercenter.com/767-275-9061.html/5 where the phone number appears to be somewhere in the US. It's alarming how tricky this scam is because there's no red flags to watch out for.

[siah1214]

Anytime I get a call from a # I don't recognize, I bing it.  If there's no results on Bing, I wait for them to leave a voicemail. If you don't leave a voicemail, then you obviously don't really want to talk to me.

[Hum]

I got a 243 call today, which I ignored -- don't know anyone in Ohio.