11 Scam Phone Area Codes People In Illinois, Iowa, And Wisconsin Should Never Answer

Scam calls suck and they're so common.

Sometimes it's fun to answer a scam call just to troll the person on the other end of the line. One time I answered a call and made it sound like it was live on the radio. The scammer hung up pretty fast after that.

Phones are pretty good about letting us know 'Spam Risk' whenever one of these numbers calls us and most of us don't answer a number if it's from an area code we don't know. Go Banking Rates looked at the most common spam phone number area codes, so you don't have to google it after your phone rings to see where that call even came from.

The Kinda Viable Ones

Before we get into the very spammy ones, there are some that could actually be legit if you're expecting a call from somewhere in these places.

• 216: Cleveland, Ohio
• 712: Western Iowa
• 218: Northern Minnesota
• 332 & 347: New York City
• 646: Manhattan
• 469: Dallas, Texas
• 657: La Palma, California

Only answer those if you're expecting a phone call from a business or person in those areas.

The Very Spammy Ones

Unfortunately, no that likely isn't a Nigerian prince calling you to ask you to be his princess with a life full of money and luxury. Here are some of the most common spam area codes and the locations that they actually are.

232: Sierra Leone

234: Nigeria

242: Bahamas

268: Antigua & Barbuda

284: British Virgin Islands

355: Albania

375: Belarus

649: Turks & Caicos Islands

829: Dominican Republic

868: Trinidad & Tobago

876: Jamaica

Of course there are a lot of different kinds of phone scams. One is called one-ring that is going to ring once with the intention that you will call the number back.

There may be messages of urgency, like a package delivery you need to take care of or some voicemail that sounds super urgent.

Robocalls suck. You can get on the National Do Not Call Registry to hopefully get rid of at least a few of the spammy calls. There are some spam call-blocking apps that you can use to help filter out these calls too.