Telephone Hijackers - WARNING - EVERYONE PLEASE READ!

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

So, here we are home alone on a lazy Saturday night. Nothing going, just watching Fried Green Tomatoes and surfin' the DIS, when the phone rings. I got up to grab it and the caller ID only said the word PRISON and it was a phone number with a long distance area code. So, I thought it was odd, but being that you never know what friends or family may have been up to, I answered it. The voice response system was being spoken in Spanish to us. I barely understand a couple of words of the language and due to the volume of the tv, I missed the part that said to press 0 for English. Anyway, I hung up and figured that if it was important that they would call back. Just as soon as the phone hit the charger, it rang. I gave the phone to Corey, who does understand and speak a little Spanish. She had muted the tv volume and did hear the option for English.

The caller said that they were with the police and that they couldn't tell us who the call was for, but that there was a two person car wreck and that our phone number had been pulled out of the victim's cell phone as an emergency contact. The victims had no other ID on them, but to find out more details, we were to dial *721 773 414 6544 in order to find out more information. We were asked to repeat the number to them and then we hung up.

Immediately, both of our BS detectors were going off. The fact that we were greeted with a Spanish voicemail response system instead of a human being was the first sign that something wasn't right. Our Spanish speaking community around here is unfortunately very prone to scams, so that was a tip to us. Then the fact that they said that they were the police, but didn't say where they were or where the accident was or who the call was for, well, it was just another little bit of hinkiness that just didn't set well for either of us. Corey called her Dad, who recently retired from the police department, and told him what happened and he too thought it was a scam.

A quick search on the internet and we had proof. This is what I found....

Jail Inmates Hijack People's Phone Lines With Scam
Inmates Pretend They Are Cops, Say Loved One Was In Wreck
Jul 3, 2007 9:23 am US/Central
PALOS PARK, Ill. (STNG) ― The call sent a jolt through the Palos Park woman. He said he was a cop and told her she was listed as an emergency contact for someone who had just been in a car wreck.

Hang up, he told her, and dial *72 followed by a number with a Chicago area code to reach a doctor who could tell her more.

The woman's thoughts raced to her 19-year-old son, who was out with friends.

She dialed the number. And the headaches began.

The cop was a phony. And by doing what he said, the woman allowed him to "hijack" her phone line -- making calls that were charged to her phone.

"He sounded very professional," said the woman, who did not want her name revealed.

The scam works like this: An urgent call comes to your home, usually late. The caller claims to be a doctor or a police officer and says someone you know has been in a wreck and you need to call someone for more information by dialing a number preceded by pressing *72 or 72# -- a feature offered by most phone companies to forward calls while you're on vacation.

No one answers but any subsequent charges made from the number you called will be charged to your account.

Calls like these often come from jails because pretrial inmates are granted access to communal phones placed in their living quarters. Bill Cunningham, spokesman for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, said the phones must remain available to inmates of the Cook County Jail who are charged but not convicted.

The best advice to protect yourself? If a caller asks you to hang up and call another number, don't do it.

If you think you've been victimized, dial 73# to unlock the forwarding feature from your line.

Then call your phone company to alert them -- and to make sure charges don't accumulate.
(Source: Sun-Times News Group Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2006. All Rights Reserved.)

The 773 area code is in Chicago. Luckily, we didn't fall for this. We have attempted to block the number from being able to call us again, but have not been able to make the function work. With Corey's recent brush with ID theft , it's so not what we want or need right now. I wanted to share this with you folks to possibly keep any of you from being scammed too.

 

[MonorailMan]

Uuugh! Luckily you didn't go through with it.

There seem to be a lot of scams going on now. Even people running for political office are kind of doing it. The other day I got a call where the caller ID said "NBC", and it was one of those recordings promoting John McCain for president. It happened again the next day, only this time the caller ID said "General Electric".

 

[padalyn]

wow - thanks for the post. I don't have a phone line - I tore it out a few years ago, but this is really good info!

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

Phone bill came and in pressing to hear whatever they wanted to tell us in English, we got charged $7.24. It seems that it was a COLLECT CALL too! The charges were from OAN Services, Inc.

We are disputed the charges. Corey's blood pressure rose quite a bit as she spoke to some outsourced AT&T customer service rep. She had to ask for a manager to dispute the charges. They did finally issue a one time credit.

Posting this info has had a dual purpose. It's helped to warn people about this problem and it's served as a resource for us be able to make our case.

 

[Salinger]

I think the article got some facts wrong. I don't believe they can "hijack" one's phone by doing this. While you may be charged long distance, and it is possible they set up the number they asked you to call as some sort of "pay by the minute" type thing, they cannot make calls on another phone charging it back to your line simply because you have your phone forwarded there.

Many people use this command to forward their home/cell phone to their office number and vice-versa, but it certainly doesn't mean that every call made after that on the destination phone is charged to the originating line.

It is a devious plot they have there, but not quite as scary as the article makes it sound.

Certainly a good heads up though!!

 

[CanadianGuy]

I think the article got some facts wrong. I don't believe they can "hijack" one's phone by doing this. While you may be charged long distance, and it is possible they set up the number they asked you to call as some sort of "pay by the minute" type thing, they cannot make calls on another phone charging it back to your line simply because you have your phone forwarded there.

Many people use this command to forward their home/cell phone to their office number and vice-versa, but it certainly doesn't mean that every call made after that on the destination phone is charged to the originating line.

It is a devious plot they have there, but not quite as scary as the article makes it sound.

Certainly a good heads up though!!

Think of it like this - the inmate only has so many long distance minutes available to them.

By using this technique, you 'forward' your phone to a long distance number which the inmate can reach by calling a local number - YOURS. The long distance portion of the charges are now on your bill. And they can talk for HOURS ... at your expense till you shut the forwarding off.

Knox