MOUNT VERNON — Anyone with a cell phone or Internet connection has heard rumors or news reports of people paying out thousands of dollars for having fallen victim to a cell phone or e-mail scam.
According to the Federal Communications Commission, one scam-warning making its way through office e-mails involves someone calling the office and claiming to be a telephone company investigating technical problems with the line, or checking up on calls supposedly placed to other states or countries from a line. To assist the caller, you’re asked to dial either 90# or #90, or connect the caller to an outside line. The scam is that by doing this, the caller is allowed access to your phone lines that may allow long distance calls to be placed at your expense.
According to the FCC, this scam does not affect cell phones or anyone with a land line and their own common carrier, such as Verizon or Sprint. This scam was designed to target businesses which have their own private branch exchange or private automatic branch exchange.
A private branch exchange is a telephone exchange connecting a business’s internal phone lines with outside trunk lines. These exchanges were first introduced when a company switchboard operator would make line connections by hand, inserting jacks into phone plugs on a huge board.
Since the 1990s and the invention of “voice over Internet protocol,” most business systems have advanced beyond the effectiveness of the 90# or #90 scam, according to the FCC.
The News attempted to dial both 90# and #90 on land lines and cell phones and all that was heard was a rapid busy signal or a common carrier recording.
The FCC states a more common scam is someone receiving an e-mail or a voice mail or page asking the recipient to dial a phone number with an 809, 876 or 284 area code. Although these numbers look like stateside long-distance numbers, the FCC reports they are actually toll lines to the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the British Virgin Islands, respectively. Anyone dialing a number with these area codes could be liable for higher international calling rates, in addition to any other tolls.
This is not to say, however, that a private individual or a business is not susceptible to phone scams. A person connecting a stranger to one of their own outside lines still faces the risk that the caller may run up additional phone calls on their bill. According to the FCC, “these types of calls are made to trick subscribers into taking actions that will enable the caller to place fraudulent calls.”
The FBI has reported on multiple similar scams across the country. Victims of fraud reported receiving calls from people identifying themselves as officers of the court, police and FBI agents. The FBI advises to “never give out personal information when you receive an unsolicited phone call.”
The government advises that if anyone thinks they may be the victim of a potential scam, if the caller asks for personal information or requests that you dial out any numbers, to “immediately hang up the receiver and do not dial any numbers or transfer the caller to an outside line before hanging up.”
Anyone suspecting he or she may have received a fraudulent phone call is advised to contact the common carrier and local law enforcement.
