Fwd: Phone scam

[ibneko]

A telephone call was received last evening from an individual identifying himself as an AT&T Service technician who was conducting a test on 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. Have also verified this information with UCB Telecom,Pacific Bell, MCI, Bell Canada Please
beware. DO NOT press 9 0 # 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. After checking with Verizon they said it was true, so do not dial (9),zero(0), the pound sign # and hang up for anyone. Plus, let those who have elderly parents know what to do.

Never knew 90# could do that... interesting.

Comments

[andr00.livejournal.com]

It can't, not at home.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa021898.htm

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

It's not much of a problem, although technically possible in specific circumstances:

"Do you, as the average residential or cell 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."

Generally speaking, though, 90# has no special meaning to phone systems - it's only a potential issue with some PBX systems, where they basically get the called party to hand them an outside line, having identified the PBX in use, and thus, how to correctly phrase the scam.

Re:

[ibneko.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool. Mmm, must tell/clarify to dad who forwarded that to me...

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)].
::cracks up::

Re:

[ibneko.livejournal.com]

::nods:: gotcha.

(Heh, andr00 beat you to it, although your post was more specific =^^= )