Phone Scam or Urban Legend

[Jack Batty]

If this has been covered, I couldn't find it in my exhaustive (minute and a half) search . . .

I received an E-mail from a co-worker this morning warning me of the evil 90# scam. Namely - If some one calls claiming to work for the Phone Company and asks you to press 9 - 0 - #, you end up giving them full access to your long distance account. Apparently, this has been documented by numerous people and numerous companies yada yada yada. Of course the E-mail also includes the directive to forward this information to every one you know and half the ones you don't. It reeks of Urban-Legendocity.

Is there an veracity to this "scam" at all? It all sounds familiar. If there is a link, that'll suffice as a good enough answer.

[wring]

semi legend.

Only phone systems with the "Dial 9 for an outside line" will have any potential for this.

check out the Urban legends website.
http://www.urbanlegends.about.com/culture/beliefs/legends/mbody.htm?

[Crusoe]

Partly true, partly false...it's technically possible, but only if you have to dial "9" for an outside line on your phone. Beyond that, the evidence is inconclusive.

Snopes -- Jail Call (http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/jailcall.htm).

[Jack Batty]

Thanks wring. That was very helpful, and interesting.

[Jack Batty]

Thanks to you too, mattk. I always love a good Urban Legend link.

[slackergirl]

Woohoo...an urban legend that happened to me!

I had no idea this had been passed around. I used to work in call centers for AAA in Los Angeles and San Francisco and we had several of these guys calling in every night. They would call the AAA 800 number from prison, then pull the 90# thing. It took us about a week to figure out what was going on. They were still calling when I left the company 7 years later. I guess they'd get a newbie who'd let them through often enough that it was worth it to keep trying.

[Edward The Head]

well here is a link from the new Verizon people. I thought I saw more about this somewhere else but here it is. go back to the fraud page to find more info on other things too.

http://www.bellatlantic.com/security/fraud/pbx_scam.htm