# New phone scam? Calls in Spanish (or Portugese) from Pennsylvania

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-scam-calls-in-spanish-or-portugese-from-pennsylvania/541674>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 2, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-scam-calls-in-spanish-or-portugese-from-pennsylvania/541674 "2010-06-02T17:52:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![statsman1982](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@statsman1982](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statsman1982)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-scam-calls-in-spanish-or-portugese-from-pennsylvania/541674/1 "2010-06-02T17:52:40Z")

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[I did some searching](http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=7172009898&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=C1NrjtJgGTPSiK4XUM4vridQHAAAAqgQFT9AqpGE&fp=581326f3d82a31f)on this problem, and it’s apparently a scam, but what _is_ the scam? So far, I just see a bunch of people reporting the problem, but not saying what it is.

For those who want to skip the link, you get a phone call with a recorded message from 717-200-9898 entirely in Spanish (or Portuguese). It begins with “Attencion.” The message is about 15 seconds long. I don’t speak a word of Spanish, so I have no idea what’s going on.

Has anyone else received these calls? What is the scam, if any?

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**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-scam-calls-in-spanish-or-portugese-from-pennsylvania/541674/2 "2010-06-02T18:15:11Z")

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Google Voice uses numbers with area codes from that area I believe along with Montana, if that helps not sure if the two are related but it is something I thought about when I read the title