>This was sent to me and sounded interesting enough to pass along.
>
>
>>The Scam works basically like this:
>>
>>You get home and notice that the message light is blinking on your
answering
>>machine. You listen to the message, which has several wrinkles, but the
>>best one is the caller asks you to call a number beginning with area code
>>809 to receive information about a family member who has been ill. (They
may
>>also tell you someone has been arrested, died, you have won a wonderful
>>prize, etc.)
>>
>>In any event, concerned or curious, you make the call. Sometimes the phone
>>will be answered by a person who claims to speak broken English. (The idea
>>is to keep you on the line to build up charges.) Or, sometimes you will
>>just get a long recorded message. The bottom lines is, when your phone
bill
>>comes, you see this incredible charge, often times more than $100.00
dollars!
>>
>>Crooks are using the 809 numbers as "pay-per-calls" and to get around the
US
>>Regulations and 900 number blocking. Every time you call the number, they
>>get a greatly inflated rebate from the foreign phone company. Since the
809
>>numbers are in the Caribbean, they aren't bound by US 900# regulations that
>>require them to warn you of the charge and rate involved, and also to
>>provide a time period during which you may terminate the call without being
>>charged.
>>
>>The newest twist to this scam is to page people using the 809 numbers.
With
>>the new area code changes, people unknowingly are returning these calls.
>>When the bill comes, there are HUGE charges for the calls.
>>
>>My suggestion is that no matter how you get the message, If you are asked
to
>>call a number with an 809 area code that you don't recognize, DON'T RETURN
>>THE CALL! It's bad enough that the criminal is invading your privacy,
don't
>>let them invade your wallet as well!
>>
>>Scams of this type are extremely hard to prosecute and since you did
>>actually make the call, neither your local phone company or your long
>>distance carrier will want to get involved. They'll tell you that they are
>>simply providing the billing for the foreign company. You end up trying to
>>deal (over the phone) with a foreign company that feels they have done no
>>wrong. It can turn into a real nightmare!
>>
>>PLEASE FWD THIS MSG TO FRIENDS AND LET PEOPLE BE AWARE OF IT!"
>>
>>------- End of Forwarded Message
>>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 22:37:42 EEST