Comments on: 90# could hurt you. http://montreal.metblogs.com/2005/08/24/90-could-hurt-you/ Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:52:42 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: AJ http://montreal.metblogs.com/2005/08/24/90-could-hurt-you/comment-page-1/#comment-232 AJ Wed, 24 Aug 2005 21:32:14 +0000 http://montreal.metblogs.com/2005/08/24/90-could-hurt-you/#comment-232 This is a real scam, documented on Snopes.com and elsewhere. It doesn't affect residential customers, only businesses and other organizations that use a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) internal phone system. It doesn't work on all systems; in some cases they will try some "social engineering" to get you to redirect to an operator. Essentially, the scammer tries to get control of an outside line, through which they can then make free long-distance calls or commit further fraud. This scam often occurs with people calling from prisons. So, if you receive a collect call from a prison, or from someone claiming to be from the phone company...hang up! This is a real scam, documented on Snopes.com and elsewhere. It doesn’t affect residential customers, only businesses and other organizations that use a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) internal phone system. It doesn’t work on all systems; in some cases they will try some “social engineering” to get you to redirect to an operator.

Essentially, the scammer tries to get control of an outside line, through which they can then make free long-distance calls or commit further fraud. This scam often occurs with people calling from prisons.

So, if you receive a collect call from a prison, or from someone claiming to be from the phone company…hang up!

]]>