Know the GOOD and BAD area codesAny number starting with 800, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877, or 888 is designed to be free for the U.S./Canadian caller However, scammers will often 'spoof' your caller ID with one of the toll-free ones to make you think it's a legitimate company calling. Outgoing calls you are prompted to make that WILL BE Toll Calls: Numbers in many Caribbean area codes share the +1 country code and look domestic (1-XXX-XXX-XXXX), but they are international and can be expensive. Classic examples of the old "809 scam" and similar schemes involve codes such as: 809, 829, 849 (Dominican Republic) 876 / 658 (Jamaica) 473 (Grenada) 649 (Turks and Caicos) 284 (British Virgin Islands) And others (242 Bahamas, 246 Barbados, 268 Antigua, etc.) These are not toll-free. Calling them from the U.S. incurs international rates. Here they are in numerical order: 242, 246, 268, 284, 473, 649, 658, 809, 829, 849, 876 Such numbers might be in scammer emails and prompt you for a call back to Reply to their message. Also, those numbers can be used in the 'One Ring' scam, where your phone rings only once. They want you to think their call was cut off and that you will call them back to the number on your caller ID. Back to Favorites or BACK button |