As if there weren’t enough pirates around Lake Lanier. Now, buccaneers in an area code far, far away have set a trap for us … using our cell phones as bait.
That late-night phone call you might have received was more than an annoyance, it’s an expensive scam too. I almost fell for it myself.
I have a phone that is much smarter than I am — especially when awakened from a sound sleep. The people who call me regularly have their own ringtones, everyone else gets a generic song (Low Rider by War).
Just after midnight, my cell phone rang. Just once. Then it stopped.
I didn’t recognize the ringtone, so I went back to dreaming of frolicking along the Appalachian Trail with Suzannah.
First thing the next morning, I Googled the number that called: 268-762-0158. Looked harmless enough, but it wasn’t.
The area code “268” is assigned to the Caribbean Islands. Scammers, in this case, hope to annoy people into returning a call to whomever hung up after one ring. When you call that number, you’ll be billed for an international call. There are reports that I could not personally confirm that said that folks who call numbers such as 268-762-0158 are also billed by the person at the other end of the phone.
Remember the old 900 numbers that people paid $10 or $20 a minute to supposedly speak to a psychic or somebody who would take dirty to them? In a similar manner, these hoaxsters can bill you for calling them and they’re not accountable to American laws because you’re calling them … in the Caribbean Islands.
Again, this is not some outrageous story I found on the Internet. This happened to me personally. As a writer and researcher, I never know who will be calling me next. That’s why I Googled the number.
I hope that my research into this odd call will help you not walk the plank offered by these pirates in the Caribbean.
The scurvy dogs. Aarrrggghhhh.
