Please be aware that this “one ring” scam is happening all over and cases have been reported in our area. According to Yahoo Finance they say…

Don’t return calls from these area codes — it’s a scam!

A scam that repeats itself in modified forms every few years is once again spreading throughout the United Sates. 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.  Read More