Cellphone Scam Alert In Acadiana

Your mobile telephone rings, you look down at the caller ID screen. You don't recognize the number, it looks local and before you can answer the call disconnects after one ring. For a lot of us the impulse is to dial the number back. You might want to hold the phone because that call could take about $30 bucks out of your wallet.

The process is part of a new phone scam that has been identified by the Better Business Bureau. The scammers appear to be based in the Caribbean and here is how the scam works. When you call the number back, you are actually dialing an international number, that's $19.95 on your bill. Assuming that you only stay on the call for one minute, the going international rate is $9 bucks.  That means you're now into the scam for $28.95.

It's not exactly clear how the scam artists collect the cash but this isn't the first phone scam out the Caribbean region in recent memory. Most of those who have been affected by the scam say the calls originated out of Grenada, Jamaica and the British Virgin Islands.