Saturday, November 15, 2008

NEW TELEPHONE SCAM

I just received an email from a long-time client with a warning about a new scam, and though I would pass it along to my readers.

I dialed '0' and asked the operator who confirmed that this was correct so please pass it on. l also checked out Snopes.com. This is true, and also applies to cell phones!
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PASS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.
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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.
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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.
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I was further informed that this scam has been originating from many local jails/prisons DO NOT press 90# for ANYONE.
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The GTE Security Department requested that I share this information with EVERYONE I KNOW.
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After checking with Verizon they also said it was true, so do not dial 90# for anyone!
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Thanks, Jim, for spreading the word!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can't trust these emails when they say they checked snopes. That's part of the scam.

http://www.snopes.com/fraud/telephone/jailcall.asp

Apparently it's partially true but insanely unlikely.

Robert D Flach said...

JH-

Thanks for the word.

To be honest, I trusted the source of the email (a long-time client and long-time Verizon - formerly NJ Bell - employee) so I did not take the time to verify it myself.

Perhaps I will be more "diligent" in the future - but I thought it better to be safe than sorry.

Thanks again!

TWTP