# I just got a collect call from County Jail

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-got-a-collect-call-from-county-jail/372792>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [September 15, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-got-a-collect-call-from-county-jail/372792 "2006-09-15T02:52:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-got-a-collect-call-from-county-jail/372792/1 "2006-09-15T02:52:07Z")

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…and it was a wrong number. I answered and it was a recorded message.

“Hello. This is a collect call from _Michael_ and the Santa Barbara County Jail. To accept the call press 3. To decline press 9 or hang up.”

All of it was in the pleasent female voice that is usually on collect calls except for the name. It was the despondent Michael. I don’t know the guy so I just hung up. I hope that that wasn’t his “one phone call” and now he has to spend the night in the clink.

Poor guy.

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**Author:** ![mischievous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mischievous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mischievous)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2006, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-got-a-collect-call-from-county-jail/372792/2 "2006-09-15T05:33:21Z")

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I have also gotten collect calls from people I don’t know in jail, as have a number of (mostly women) I know. Some of these may be due to a correlation between jail time and not having an up-to-date address book, but there are also a number of scams that inmates try to play from the inside by using sympathetic (mostly women) victims.

IIRC, no-one gets just “one phone call” these days. Phone time is so cheap that it is far wiser for the police to let you make as many calls as you need to in order to get in touch than for them to risk the legal problems attendent on denying you your rights. Don’t worry about Micheal.

mischievous