A Telephone Scam: Has anyone else heard about this?

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MarieVeronica

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Dear CAF… I received an email from my cousin concerning an apparently “new” telephone scam. He received it from someone else and forwarded it, to me. Here is what the email says:
“I received a telephone call last evening from an individual identifying himself as an AT&T Service Technician (could also be Telus) who was conducting a test on the telephone lines. He stated that to complete the test I should touch nine (9), zero (0), the pound sign (#), and then hang up. Luckily, I was suspicious and refused.
*
Upon contacting the telephone company, I was informed that by pushing 90#, you give the requesting individual full access to your telephone line, which enables them to place long distance calls billed to your home phone number.*
**
I was further informed that this scam has been originating from many local jails/prisons * DO NOT press 90# for ANYONE.*
**
The GTE Security Department requested that I share this information with EVERYONE I KNOW.*
**
After checking with Verizon they also said it was true, so do not dial 90# for anyone!!!”
Sounded like an important warning… :eek: and I wondered if any of you have heard of this? Legit? Thanks.

God bless.
 
See here: urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa021898.htm

Some significant snippets:

SUMMARY: Forwarded email warns telephone customers not to comply with instructions from persons claiming to be phone company service technicians to ‘test the line’ by dialing 90# or #90.

Description: Email rumor
Circulating since: Jan. 1998
Status: Partly true / Overblown

Comments by Patrick Crispen: As shocking as this may sound, the “nine-zero-pound” story is true … sort of.

What the warning letter floating around the Net doesn’t say is that this scam only works on telephones where you have to dial 9 to get an outside line. Unless you have to dial 9 to get an outside line at home, this scam does not affect residential telephone users. Dialing “nine-zero-pound” on a residential phone will only give you a busy signal. That’s it.

On some business phones, however, dialing “nine-zero-pound” may transfer a call to an outside operator and give the caller the opportunity to call anywhere in the world and charge it to your business’ phone bill … maybe. It all depends on how your business’ telephone system is set up. If your company doesn’t require you to dial 9 to get an outside line (for example, if you have a direct outside telephone line on your desk or if your company’s phone system requires you to dial a number other than 9 to get an outside line) the “nine-zero-pound” scam does not affect you. Also, if your company’s phone system is set up so that you cannot make a long distance call once you have accessed an outside line (a lot of companies now limit all outside lines to local calls only), the “nine-zero-pound” scam does not affect you either.

The “nine-zero-pound” story only affects those businesses that require you to dial 9 to get an outside line and then place no restrictions on who or where you can call once you get that outside line. And, just to be anal-retentive, let me say one more time that, unless you have to dial 9 to get an outside line at home, this scam does not affect residential telephone users. [It also probably doesn’t affect non-U.S. telephone users. This is especially true for British telephone users whose telephone system is so complex that NO ONE in the UK knows how to use BT’s phones (although I am sure that BT users are currently dealing with some sort of “dial q-seven-pi-cromwell-eleventeen-tomato” scam)].

— Patrick Crispen (Reprinted from The Internet TourBus by permission)
 
Leopard said:
What the warning letter floating around the Net doesn’t say is that this scam only works on telephones where you have to dial 9 to get an outside line. Unless you have to dial 9 to get an outside line at home, this scam does not affect residential telephone users.

Thank you so much! This makes me feel better. I get kind of tired of these “alarming” emails floating around. They seem to be more about “agitating” people, than anything else. 🤷

Glad to know that this one doesn’t apply to residential phones. Still, a good warning for businesses.

God bless.
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It’s good to know this, even if it’s only partially true. It’s amazing how many scams are out there. Years ago, before Caller I.D., I answered a phone call from some guy who said we’d won something–in order to claim the prize he needed our credit card number. When I said that we had no credit cards, he hung up immediately. Then, more recently, we were getting phone calls from the county jail–Caller I.D. identified them as such and a recording would announce that the call was from an inmate and warned of scams. The calls would be collect, and if a person accepted the charges, the inmates had a way of billing long distance calls to the victim’s number.
 
Tenebrae said:
It’s good to know this, even if it’s only partially true. It’s amazing how many scams are out there. Years ago, before Caller I.D., I answered a phone call from some guy who said we’d won something–in order to claim the prize he needed our credit card number. When I said that we had no credit cards, he hung up immediately. Then, more recently, we were getting phone calls from the county jail–Caller I.D. identified them as such and a recording would announce that the call was from an inmate and warned of scams. The calls would be collect, and if a person accepted the charges, the inmates had a way of billing long distance calls to the victim’s number.
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:eek: “Tenebrae” that is scary. I guess it’s a good idea to screen calls… before answering them?
 
Tenebrae said:
It’s good to know this, even if it’s only partially true. It’s amazing how many scams are out there. Years ago, before Caller I.D., I answered a phone call from some guy who said we’d won something–in order to claim the prize he needed our credit card number. When I said that we had no credit cards, he hung up immediately. Then, more recently, we were getting phone calls from the county jail–Caller I.D. identified them as such and a recording would announce that the call was from an inmate and warned of scams. The calls would be collect, and if a person accepted the charges, the inmates had a way of billing long distance calls to the victim’s number.
Click to expand...
If you live in Georgia, you can tell them that the law forbids any requirement of any kind in order to receive a prize, and if possible such calls should be reported to the Attorney General. This also works on those people who call and inform you that you have “won” something if you come and watch a presentation for a time-share, for example. You won’t get the prize, but letting them know that you know the law makes them take you off their list.

You might check your own state law to see if it is similar.
 
I do not care what Snopes said, this scam is real, although in this part of the country it is *72 that needs to be dialed. This feature is used to forward calls from your phone to another phone (like your cell phone or a vacation phone). Inmates who can only call collect will try to pose as some authority to have you test your phone, cancel your bill or some other excuse to *72 your phone to a friend. Then they can dial your number, you will not know it, it rings at their friends house where they accept the collect call and you pay the bill. I have seen this tried and used multiple times.
 
pnewton said:
I do not care what Snopes said, this scam is real, although in this part of the country it is *72 that needs to be dialed. This feature is used to forward calls from your phone to another phone (like your cell phone or a vacation phone). Inmates who can only call collect will try to pose as some authority to have you test your phone, cancel your bill or some other excuse to *72 your phone to a friend. Then they can dial your number, you will not know it, it rings at their friends house where they accept the collect call and you pay the bill. I have seen this tried and used multiple times.
Click to expand...
:bigyikes: Glad I screen our calls!
 
I used to have call forwarding for a gang of kids who called me repeatedly and shouted ALLO! ALLO! into the phone, which they apparently thought was very funny. I forwarded them to the police station. I guess that cured them.
 
My bro just got a scam phone call yesterday… apparently a third party was trying to get into his mastercard, and they needed him to punch in his card number to proceed :rolleyes:
 
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