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New Phone Scam Relies On Call Recipients' Curiosity

A new scam alert has been issued by the Better Business Bureau.

BBB Director of Operations Kim Sweazy  says it works like this…

Scammers call your cell phone, let it ring once, then hang up.  While most ignore it as a wrong call, some return it, ending with out-of-country charges and other fees tacked on to their bill.

"These area codes are from the Caribbean, so what they're counting on in the scam is that folks will call the number back and when they call the number back they're faced with international charges on their cell phone bill. Plus the company or whomever is calling them is actually a 900 type service, so you're actually getting fees from them for an adult entertainment line or a chat line or something similar," she says.

Sweazy says the area codes to look out for are 284 and 876 but to be wary of any number that shows up as a missed call that you can’t identify.  Unlike other scams that target older victims, Sweazy says this one seems to go after millennials who are inclined to want to know who is calling them and normally don’t leave or listen to recorded voice mail messages.