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Phone-call-from-jail scam lives on
Associated Press
Published February 22, 2005
MIAMI - Jail inmates across Florida have been tapping into the residential phone lines of unsuspecting people to make long-distance calls, officials said.
The inmates make collect calls at random, then persuade the unwitting person on the line to press star-72 and the number to the pay phone at the jail. That forwards the victim's line to the jail phone and gives the inmate repeated access to the residential line to make calls - including long-distance calls.
The Miami-Dade County jail has been getting complaints from victims for about a year, spokeswoman Janelle Hall said. She didn't know the total number.
Some were scammed out of hundreds of dollars' worth of long-distance calls.
The jail added a warning to its collect call message that says dialing star-72 could make the person a victim of a scam. But victims don't pay attention, she said.
"The main thing to do is just don't accept the call," Hall said.
The scam also occurs at other jails, she said. (In the past year, there have been numerous reports of people in the Tampa Bay area being victimized by such a scam.)
Joan Church, of Williston in Levy County, said she received an unnerving call from Miami two weeks ago.
"The man told me there had been an accident involving two men and two women," Church said. "He said: "You need to call this number and ask for Dr. Allen."'
The anonymous caller told the 62-year-old retired widow to dial star-72, then call a phone number with a 305 area code.
Church said she has a son living in Homestead and thought she was dialing a hospital number.
Eventually, she called the phone company and learned she had activated call forwarding. She is still waiting for her phone bill to find out how many calls were made on her line.
State prisons have stopped similar scams by preventing inmates from unrestricted collect calling and three-way calling, said Debbie Buchanan, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Corrections.
[Last modified February 22, 2005, 05:11:29]
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by Jean
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02/27/08 02:33 PM
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I was a victim of this and feel very stupid. It is not just long distance calls however. If they make calls, even local ones, you could be charged a lot of money. The calls cost 4-5 Dollars each.
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by Julio
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09/24/07 11:38 AM
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I constantly get calls from the local jails and the prisons that are near by.
I always hang up,but they still call. I don't know how they got my phone number. I moved in here four years ago. I don't know who had this number before.
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by Marge
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08/09/07 05:32 PM
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I too was a victim of this scam.caught it quick. called the phone co. and they told me to hit *73 to stop it.. I have free long distance so I shouldn't get hurt. All prisons should ONLY allow collect calls. I felt so stupid after I did it.
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