Scam Calls from Area Code 718

Area code 718, which covers Brooklyn, Staten Island, Bayside, and broader New York City geography, has generated 960 complaints across 337 distinct numbers since February 2026, with activity still ongoing as of June 2026. Those complaints are concentrated enough that 718 ranks 28th out of 47 area codes in its peer group, a notable position for a code serving one of the most densely populated urban regions in the country.

The leading complaint category by volume is dropped calls or no message, with 175 complaints, followed closely by impersonation of government agencies, businesses, or family members at 143 complaints. Medical and prescription scams account for 86 complaints, debt-reduction pitches covering credit cards, mortgages, and student loans account for 66, and lottery or sweepstakes solicitations account for 30. The FCC holds 11 records tied to this code, and of the contacts where call type was recorded, 116 involved live callers versus 20 prerecorded messages, suggesting a predominantly human-dialed operation rather than a robocall-heavy one.

The single most-complained-about number, 718-320-3300, drew 44 complaints with no category on record. The next busiest, 718-971-5701, generated 20 dropped-call complaints, and 718-971-5785 produced 16 complaints categorized under charities. The lottery and sweepstakes bucket is anchored by 718-878-1363 at 12 complaints, while debt-reduction contact 718-952-3460 logged 10. Three additional numbers, 718-524-5448, 718-593-7519, and 718-643-0483, each reached 9 or 10 complaints in the dropped-call category.

Although complaints originate primarily from New York, recipients in New Jersey and California have also filed, indicating the dialing is not confined to local targets despite the 718 prefix suggesting a New York City origin. The breadth of scam types across a live-caller-dominant pattern, combined with an unclassified high-volume number at the top of the complaint list, points to an adaptive operation cycling through fraud vectors rather than one running a single fixed script.