That late-night phone call you and others who live near Lake Allatoona might have received recently was more than an annoyance, it’s an expensive scam too.  I almost fell for it myself.

Just after midnight, my cell phone rang.  Just once.  Then it stopped.

I have a phone that is much smarter than I am — especially when awakened from a sound sleep at night.  The people who call me regularly all have their own ringtones, everyone else gets the generic song (Low Rider by War).

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 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 take the bait offered by these pirates in the Caribbean.

The scurvy dogs.