The old traditional (wired) phone scam involving the 90# buttons on your business telephone is still around.

How This Scam Occurs

You receive a call at your office from someone claiming to be a telephone company employee investigating technical problems with your line, or checking up on calls supposedly placed to other states or countries from your line. The caller asks you to aid the investigation by either dialing 90# or transferring him/her to an outside line before hanging up the telephone receiver. By doing this, you may be enabling the caller to place calls that are billed to your office telephone number.

What You Should Know

• Telephone company employees checking for technical and other types of telephone service or billing problems would not call and ask a subscriber to dial a specific series of numbers before hanging up the telephone receiver.

• Telephone company employees would not request subscribers to connect the caller to an outside line before hanging up the receiver.

• These types of calls are made to trick subscribers into taking actions that will enable the caller to place fraudulent calls.

• This scam only works if your telephone is served by a private branch exchange (PBX) or private automatic branch exchange (PABX).

What to Do

If your place of business utilizes either a PBX or a PABX, you or your company telecommunications manager should contact the manufacturer of the PBX or PABX and the telephone companies that provide you with local and long distance service to obtain information about the type of security systems available to protect your telephone system from toll fraud. You may also ask about any monitoring services that help detect unusual telephone system usage.

Avoid Becoming a Target

• To avoid becoming a target of this scam, educate yourself and other employees about the 90# scam. Encourage employees to take the following steps if they think that a telephone call is fraudulent or is part of this scam:

• Ask the caller for his/her name and telephone number;

• Tell the caller you are going to call the telephone company immediately to determine whether or not there is a problem with the line;

• Immediately hang up the receiver; do not dial any numbers or transfer the caller to an outside line before hanging up;

• Find the telephone number for your telephone service provider and/or its security office and report the suspicious phone call. Be prepared to provide details of the call to the telephone company representative; and

• Contact your local law enforcement officials.

For this or any other consumer publication in an accessible format
(electronic ASCII text, Braille, large print, or audio) please write or call us
at the address or phone number below, or send an e-mail to FCC504@fcc.gov.

To receive information on this and other FCC consumer topics through the Commission's
electronic subscriber service, click on http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/contacts/.

This document is for consumer education purposes only and is not intended to
affect any proceeding or cases involving this subject matter or related issues.

10/11/05 

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has become aware of a long distance phone scam that may lead consumers to inadvertently incur high charges on their phone bills.

The Scam Works Something Like This

• You get an e-mail, voicemail, or page telling you to call a phone number with an “809”, “284”, “876” (or some other three-digit) area code to collect a prize, find out about a sick relative, engage in sex talk, etc.

• You assume you are making a domestic long distance call – as “809”, “284”, “876” (and other three-digit area codes involved in this scam) appear to be typical three-digit U.S. area codes.

• When you dial the “809”, “284”, “876” (or other three-digit) area code plus the number, however, you’re actually connected to a phone number outside the United States, often in Canada or the Caribbean, and charged international call rates. (In this case, “809” goes to the Dominican Republic, “284” goes to the British Virgin Islands, and “876” goes to Jamaica.) 

• You don’t find out about the higher international call rates until you receive your phone bill.

To Minimize the Risk of This Happening to You

• Check any area codes before returning calls.

• If you do not otherwise make international calls, ask your local phone company to block outgoing international calls on your line.

Filing a Complaint with the FCC

There is no charge to file an informal complaint with the FCC. Your letter should include your name, address, telephone number or numbers involved with your complaint, a telephone number where you can be reached during the business day, and the name of your long distance carrier. Your complaint letter should also provide as much specific information as possible, such as:

• an explanation of the circumstances that led to your complaint;

• the names of all telephone or other companies involved with your complaint;

• the names and telephone numbers of the telephone company employees that you talked to in an effort to resolve your complaint;

• the dates that you talked with these employees; and

• any other information that would help the FCC to process your complaint.

Your local telephone company also often has records that are essential to the processing of your complaint.

You should mail your complaint to:

Federal Communications Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Division
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554.

To file a complaint electronically, go to www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html. Consumers can also file by e-mail at fccinfo@fcc.gov.

Filing a Complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

The FTC is revising its regulations to give consumers more rights when they are victims of international phone call scams. Among other things, the rules will require that calling costs be disclosed to the consumer before his/her call is connected.

Callers may submit their complaints, in writing, to the FTC. The FTC does not typically investigate or resolve specific complaints, but looks for trends or patterns when an issue appears to warrant action. FTC complaints should be mailed to:

Consumer Response Center
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20580.

You may also contact the FTC via phone or email:

FTC toll-free number: 1-877-382-4357
FTC e-mail address for reporting fraud: crc@ftc.gov.

For this or any other consumer publication in an accessible format
(electronic ASCII text, Braille, large print, or audio) please write or call us
at the address or phone number below, or send an e-mail to FCC504@fcc.gov.

To receive information on this and other FCC consumer topics through the Commission's
electronic subscriber service, click on http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/contacts/.

This document is for consumer education purposes only and is not intended to
affect any proceeding or cases involving this subject matter or related issues.

12/01/05 

The FCC has learned of a telephone scam that originates in Mexico and apparently targets people in Hispanic communities, or with Spanish surnames.

Consumers report that they have been deceived into accepting a collect call from a particular family member when, in fact, the call is from a stranger. The consumer is then fraudulently billed a large amount for a call that lasts a few minutes or less - or for a nonexistent call.

This scam seems to be prevalent in Spanish-speaking communities in California, Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois. 

Here's How it Works

An operator calls the consumer's residential telephone number and tells the consumer he/she has a collect call from a family member who has an emergency or an important message. The operator has all the relevant information - the family's last name, husband's name, wife's name, etc. The operator provides the consumer with the "calling family member's" name. The consumer accepts the operator-assisted call, assuming there is a real emergency or message. Upon accepting the call, the consumer is then connected to a complete stranger who gives information that is not related to the consumer's family. Realizing the call is a fraud, the consumer immediately hangs up, but is still billed for the call.

In some cases, the consumer is not even allowed to respond "yes" or "no" in accepting the call; the operator automatically puts the call through without waiting for an affirmative response. Other times, the consumer actually declines the call and is still charged a very high rate for a collect call that was never accepted.

Here's How to Avoid This Scam

Consumers should use voice recognition as a tool for identifying the person placing the collect call. Specifically, consumers should ask the operator to have the person placing the collect call speak his name, instead of allowing the operator to say the name of the person placing the collect call. Also, consumers should carefully examine their monthly telephone bills for accuracy, and report errors to the company billing for the erroneous charges.

Filing a Complaint with the FCC

Consumers who become victims of this scam are encouraged to file a written informal complaint with the FCC. There is no charge for this. Your letter should include your name, address, telephone number or numbers involved with your complaint, a telephone number where you can be reached during the business day, and the name of your long distance carrier. Your complaint letter should provide as much specific information about your complaint as possible, such as an explanation of the circumstances that led to your complaint, the names of all telephone or other companies involved with your complaint, the names and telephone numbers of the telephone company employees that you talked with in an effort to resolve your complaint, the dates that you talked with these employees, and any other information that would help the FCC to process your complaint. (Your local telephone company also often has records that are essential to processing your complaint.) Mail your complaint to:

Federal Communications Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Division
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554

To file a complaint electronically, go to www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html. You can file by e-mail at fccinfo@fcc.gov or fax your complaint to 202-418-0232.

For this or any other consumer publication in an accessible format
(electronic ASCII text, Braille, large print, or audio) please write or call us
at the address or phone number below, or send an e-mail to FCC504@fcc.gov.

To receive information on this and other FCC consumer topics through the Commission's
electronic subscriber service, click on www.fcc.gov/cgb/contacts/.

This document is for consumer education purposes only and is not intended to
affect any proceeding or cases involving this subject matter or related issues.

10/07/05