Scam Calls from Area Code 773

Area code 773 covers Chicago, Illinois, and its 638 flagged numbers have generated 1,762 total complaints since February 2026, with activity still ongoing as of June 2026. Among Illinois area codes, it ranks 13th out of 47, placing it in the upper tier of in-state complaint volume. Complaints have reached receivers in Illinois, California, and Indiana, with reported locations including Chicago, Palos Hills, Lake Forest, and as far out as El Granada, California.

The leading complaint category by volume is dropped calls or no message, with 230 complaints, followed closely by impersonation of government agencies, businesses, or family members at 176. Medical and prescription scams account for 130 complaints, and debt-reduction pitches targeting credit cards, mortgages, and student loans account for 103 more. Vacation and timeshare solicitations round out the named categories at 33 complaints.

The single most-complained-about number, 773-801-3815, has drawn 82 complaints on its own, a count that dwarfs most individual numbers in codes of comparable size. Three other numbers also carry substantial tallies: 773-945-4513 at 41 complaints, 773-302-0549 at 38, and 773-634-5314 at 35. None of those four have a categorized complaint type in the data, meaning their specific pitch is not cleanly captured by the available taxonomy. Two additional numbers, 773-302-0539 and 773-278-1300, add 22 and 24 complaints respectively, and 773-455-0835 accounts for 16 complaints specifically tied to vacation and timeshare solicitations.

FCC records show a strong prerecorded delivery bias, with 58 prerecorded-mode complaints against only 18 live-call complaints and 3 abandoned-call complaints across 9 FCC filings. That ratio suggests automated dialing infrastructure driving the bulk of outreach, which is consistent with the high dropped-call complaint count and the concentration of volume in a handful of numbers.

The threat picture here is one of a well-seeded Chicago-based cluster running multiple simultaneous campaigns, with the impersonation and medical categories suggesting operations capable of both credential-harvesting and high-pressure health product pitches. The unexplained complaint mass behind the top four numbers means a significant portion of this code's activity is either novel enough or evasive enough to resist easy classification, which points to active and adaptive operations rather than static, aging campaigns.