NAME.....The Telephone Scam
CODE.....CR1704
ORIGIN...USA, late 1990's
STATUS...True

A warning chain message was sent via E-Mail and Faxes, similar to the following:

Warning!

Con artists are phoning businesses and residents claiming to be BT service engineers. They claim to be testing your line and ask you to dial 90# (nine - zero - gate) on your telephone. Once you have dialled the numbers, the con artist has access to your phone line and is able to make long distance telephone calls that are then charged to your account.

This scam could cost you and your business thousands of pounds and needs to be taken seriously. Please inform colleagues, friends and family of this fraud.

If you receive such a call, ask the engineer for his name and a call back number. Then hang up. It is important to note that a telephone engineer would never ask a customer to help check a telephone line by dialling any numbers.

Please pass this information on.

Summary

Although I have marked this UL's status as 'True', there are some aspects that have been exaggerated. The main diversity from reality in the UL is that resident phone lines have never been affected by this scam. Telephone fraud of this kind, is normally directed at businesses using networked PBX systems.

Also, the number that is dialled to give access to the line would vary depending on the PBX equipment that is being used. The con artist is simply gaining access to the outside line, so the number that needs to be dialled depends on what number your equipment uses to transfer the call for an outside line.

Final Thoughts

There has been other telephone scams, the latest being with mobile phones. Apparantly, if you dial a certain number before dialling the actual number you want to ring, you receive a free phone call. This is because mobile phone technicians use the code to gain access to the line.