Fw: Important Warning

[Guest guest]

Date: Thursday, December 24, 1998 7:36 AMSubject: Fw: Important Warning

-----Original Message-----

I received a telephone call today from an individual identifying himself as an AT & T Service technician who was conducting a test on our 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 allows them to place long distance telephone calls billed to yourhome phone number. I was further informed that this scam has been originating from many of the local jails/prisons. I have also verified this information with UCB telecomm, Pacific Bell, MCI, Bell Atlantic, GTE and NYNEX. Please beware. DO NOT press 90# for ANYONE. The GTE Security Department requested that I share this information with EVERYONE I KNOW. PLEASE pass this on to everyone YOU know. If you have mailing lists and/or newsletters from organizations you are connected with, I encourage you to pass on this information to them, too.

E-group home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/

[Guest guest]

One sees a lot of warnings like this circulating on the internet. Most are

" Urban Legends " . The following is text from the Urban Legends web page

(http://snopes.simplenet.com/), which is an excellent place to check before

forwarding these things.

I apologize for including the crude comments at the end, but I didn't want

to modify someone else's text.

I will forward some info on a real phone scam in a seperate message.

Regards,

Art

Jail Call

By Woodmansee

Claim: Prisoners are duping residential phone customers into making

long-distance phone calls for them by posing as phone company employees

and asking customers to press the 9, 0, and # keys and then hang up.

Status: False.

Origins: This bit of scarelore hit the net in January 1998:

**HIGH PRIORITY**

On Saturday, 24 January 1998, Naval Air Station, Joint

Reserve Base, New Orleans' Quarterdeck received a telephone

call from an individual identifying himself as an AT & T

Service Technician that was running a test on our telephone

lines. He stated that to complete the test the QMOW should

touch nine (9), zero (0), pound sign (#) and hang up.

Luckily, the QMOW was suspicious and refused. Upon contacting

the telephone company we were informed that by using 90# you

end up giving the individual that called you access to your

telephone line and allows them to place a long distance

telephone call, with the charge appearing on your telephone.

We were further informed that this scam has been originating

from many of the local jails/prisons. Please " pass the word. "

Did this really happen on 24 January 1998 at the Naval Air Station,

Joint Reserve Base, New Orleans? Sort of.

Is this scam possible? Technically, yes. This trick could work with

business phone systems or switchboards where pressing '9' is the signal

to obtain an outside line, and where there are no restrictions placed

on outgoing calls. (As many of us know, our employers' phone systems

are often configured to prevent us from making long-distance calls from

our desks.) We can't give any more definitive information than to say

that this is possible, since there are so many different types of phone

systems all throughout the USA and the rest of the world.

Do you, as the average residential phone customer (in the USA, at

least), have to worry about this scam? No, not unless your home phone

requires you to press '9' to obtain an outside line. Otherwise, the

only result you'll obtain from trying this is likely to be a fast busy

signal. However, this isn't to say you shouldn't be wary of phone scams

at all. Telecommunications fraud is a rather unfortunate, yet common,

occurrence in today's high-tech age, and there are many ways that

someone can run up your phone bill without your knowledge. This

particular scam is usually directed towards businesses, government

agencies, and universities. It is known as " social engineering, " where

a caller convinces you that they work for the phone company (usually

AT & T or your local Bell company) and somehow gets connected to an

outside line, where they can run up significant charges. Every phone

system is slightly different, and it takes a different combination of

numbers to be able to transfer a crook into high long distance bills.

Here are some examples of some similar scams and how they work:

TELEPHONE SCAM -- A caller claiming to be an [AT & T]

technician [placed] more than two dozen calls to West Africa

and the Middle East through a city of Richmond [Va.] phone

line. The calls, made during two days last month, resulted in

a long distance bill of $3,852 to the city. " Somebody

obviously has to know a little about telecommunications to do

this, " said city spokesman Atkinson. Mike Melton, the

city's telecommunications manager, gave the following

account: A man who identified himself as an AT & T technician

called the city Utilities Department's Jefferson

Highway facility and asked for an extension. Once he was

connected to an outside operator by the city employee, " I

guess he conned himself into making some international

calls, " Melton said. Twenty-six calls, totaling just over

1,000 minutes were made. Of those calls, 23 were made through

AT & T and three were placed through MCI. AT & T security

personnel alerted city officials and are still investigating

the matter, Melton said. Melton said he has contacted both

AT & T and MCI about relieving the city of its bill for the

fraudulent phone calls. Since the calls were

operated-assisted and AT & T tipped the city off to the

deception, he believes the long distance providers will do

so. , [a spokesman for Bell Atlantic] said the

technicians asking for dialing assistance should be a signal

to customers that something is amiss.

[Richmond Times Dispatch, B1, 2/12.]

-------------------------------

The Special Projects Office (FSS-SPO) is warning employees of

a telephone scam being directed against the Laboratory. AT & T

has confirmed that this is a scam, which goes as follows: an

individual claiming to be with AT & T calls an employee on the

phone, gives a name and sometimes a number, and says he or

she is checking trouble on the 800 lines. The caller then

asks the employee to punch " recall, " then " 800 " and " recall "

again on the phone. In reality, these instructions connect

the caller to an outside operator through Laboratory lines to

make overseas and other long distance calls at the

Laboratory's expense. If you receive such a call, do not

follow the caller's instructions.

Los Alamos National Laboratory, June 20, 1997

-------------------------------

Hospitals fall prey to long-distance telephone fraud

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. -- Is your switchboard an open door to

thieves who will steal your long-distance service? AT & T warns

that hospitals are increasingly targeted in slick scams that

cost everyone money . . . In another ploy, a " Dr. X " makes a

collect call to the hospital, and asks to be transferred to

" Dr. Y. " (Crooks can easily get the names of actual doctors

who practice at specific hospitals.) He may ask to be

transferred one or more times before asking to be transferred

back to the receptionist, and he then asks for an outside

line. Once he gets it, he may make un- limited calls. Again,

the hospital is fully liable.

Con artists will always look for ways to steal long-distance

service, but some simple steps can help save a hospital from

fraudulent charges:

* Never accept a collect call from anyone identifying

himself or herself as a phone-company employee.

* No one from a reputable telephone company would ever ask

to charge calls to another number, for any reason.

* AT & T and other telephone companies do not ask their

customers to help trap criminals or to help with line

problems or any kind of maintenance procedure.

* Never accept third-party charges from, or provide an

outside line to, an unknown person.

An administrator who suspects fraud should call the

hospital's long-distance telephone company. AT & T can be

reached at 1-800-CALL-ATT. Organizations and government

agencies that can assist victims and provide other preventive

tips include: the National Fraud Information Center,

1-; the Better Business Bureau; and the Federal

Trade Commission, .

AT & T Press Release, August 6, 1993

-------------------------------

The Jefferson University Security Department is

alerting all employees that there are individuals calling

various departments, identifying themselves as either a

corrections officer from an area prisons, or a detective from

AT & T working on the campus. The caller gives various stories,

then requests to be transferred to the operator. The caller

may also ask, " How do you transfer calls? "

Another version of the scam is that the caller will call

collect. He will identify him/her self as an official. If the

collect call is accepted, the caller will request to be

transferred to the AT & T operator. When the caller requests to

be transferred to the operator. The caller is trying to

access an outside operator. If the story sounds strange, do

not transfer the call. Give the caller the phone number of

the operator and hang up When you receive such an unexpected

collect call, do not accept it. The Security Department has

been in touch with Bell Security and our Department of

Information Systems to try and resolve this problem. UPDATE:

Jefferson employees have notified the Security Department

that an individual is identifying himself as a doctor. The

AT & T operator (which is a recording) states that, " There is a

collect call from Doctor ________. The collect call is from

the Cook County Correctional Facility " . The individual can be

heard saying, " This is an emergency, can you transfer me to

the outside operator? " Let us know at 955-8888 if you have

received any such phone calls as those described in this

alert.

Jefferson University Security Alert, November 27, 1995

So, the moral of the story is, to paraphrase f Stalin, " Trust no

one, not even yourself. " If a caller's story sounds fishy, hang up.

Either that, or ask them whether they get conjugal visits or if anyone

got shivved in the shower today. Even if it is a real phone company

employee, it'll be good fun.

Additional information:

[AT & T's 9-0-# page] AT & T's 9-0-# page

Last updated: 28 October 1998

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/spoons/faxlore/jailcall.htm

Please use this URL in all links or references to this page

© 1998 by Woodmansee

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[Guest guest]

Info on what appears to be a real phone scam...

Art

809 Phone Scam

Claim: Unsuspecting phone customers have been gulled by scam artists

into placing calls to area codes in the Caribbean that result in

exorbitant long-distance charges.

Status: True.

Origins: Circulating on the net are dire warnings not to call numbers

in the 809 area code, because these codes are part of scams designed to

run up your phone bill. The warnings are correct in that if you call

one of these numbers in pursuit of a " mystery shopper " job or

information about an " injured " relative, or you simply return a call to

a mysterious number on your pager, your phone bill will go way up. Not

because calls to the 809 area code are billed at a higher rate than

calls to any other area code, but rather because you will deliberately

be kept on the line while the clock is ticking. So the warnings are

right that you will get suckered, just not about how this will happen.

Alerts have been been posted at the sites of both the Better Business

Bureau and the National Fraud Information Center alerting businessmen

especially to " faxback " solicitations employing the " 809 " callback

trick, including at least one newspaper that received a call from

entities representing a supposed hotel development in the Dominican

Republic (within the 809 area code) asking for advertising rate quotes,

claiming that " start-up pressures prevent us at this time from using

the mails " to request rate cards.

As reported in 1996:

The evildoers have planted 809 numbers in enticing newspaper

classifieds that offer fun and easy employment, they have

randomly punched them into paging services, and they have

left them along with ominous messages to impel people to call

to find out about unnamed hospitalized relatives or

endangered credit ratings.

The Internet warning claimed the 809 numbers are the

unregulated, overseas equivalent of pay-per-call 900 services

and that the owners charge up to $25 a minute for connect

time. In fact, 809 numbers are billed just like other

international calls. The monkey business begins outside the

reach of U.S. law, where opportunistic foreign telephone

companies cut deals with the crooks, giving them up to

60 percent of the charges as a kickback, according to

officials at AT & T.

The author of this piece went on to describe his experience in

answering a 'help wanted' ad for mystery shoppers. He got an answering

machine, and the message just went on and on. The voice on the tape was

" slow and maddeningly repetitive, as if he were speaking to 3rd

graders. " Just to listen to all of the spiel cost $40. As to how long

people have been getting taken in this way:

The wicked reportedly began working this scam three years ago

when the law cracked down on domestic 900-number abuses, but

its reach is still hard to measure. The Fraud Information

Center, a division of the National Consumers League, reports

a " big surge " in related complaint calls to its hot line

since fall, which is when the Federal Communications

Commission issued a consumer alert on 809 calls.

Things are about to get worse, because that infamous off-shore area

code (809) is in the process of breaking up into smaller chunks, and

you'll soon have to think twice about calling any of the following area

codes:

242, 246, 264, 268, 284, 345, 441, 473, 664, 758, 767, 784, 787, 868,

869, 876 as well as 809.

Barbara " (what a) sorry wrong number! " Mikkelson

Last updated: 28 October 1998

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/spoons/faxlore/809.htm

Please use this URL in all links or references to this page

[image]

Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-1998 by Barbara and P. Mikkelson

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[References:] Sources:

Zorn, . " Dialing 809 Can Exact a Stiff Toll on Your Pocketbook. "

Chicago Tribune. 19 November 1996 (Metro, p. 1).

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