Louisiana on Alert – Don’t Answer Calls from These 10 Area Codes

Some Louisiana residents of a certain age might remember a time when the telephone would ring and the only way you could find out who was calling was to answer it. Yes, there was a time before Caller ID. And y'all it hasn't been that long ago that we were telling our friends and family to call us at night or on weekends when our calls were "free".

Such is the evolution of the telephone. You might have family members that remember the old "party line" telephones. They were the social media of the day since multiple users could be on the line at the same time, it was not uncommon for nosy neighbors to listen in on other people's conversations and even make judgemental comments. See, just like social media.

But that was then and this is now and the evil we once knew, gossipy neighbors and such, have been replaced by high-tech scammers who operate from foreign shores. It seems as if every day we warn you of a new phone scam or plot to steal your money.

Among the worst of those scams are the ones that scam you without you even realizing that you've been scammed. I am speaking about what's known as "The One Ring Scam". The scam preys on people's natural curiosity and their desire to do "the right thing".

The way the scam works is like this. You get a call from an unidentified number. It rings one time. You then return the call and that's when they bill your phone for as much as $30 per minute. And no, there's not a darn thing you can do about the charges since you instigated the call.

So, if you get a call from an unfamiliar number let it go to voice mail and if they don't leave a message then they don't need you to call them back. Also, the Federal Trade Commission has issued a list of ten different area codes that the One Ring Scam is most likely to originate from so if you see a phone number with any of the area codes we've listed below, you might not want to answer and you most certainly don't want to call the number back.