don't ever dial area code 809,284, & 876

[AR182]

i received this e-mail from a friend & thought i would post this message here.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION PROVIDED TO US BY
AT&T. DON'T EVER DIAL
AREA CODE 809

This one is being distributed all over the US. This is
pretty scary,
especially given the way they try to get you to call.
Be sure you read this
and pass it on to all your friends and family so they
don't get scammed!

MAJOR SCAM:
Don't respond to Emails, phone calls, or web pages
which tell you to call
an "809" area Phone Number.

This is a very important issue of Scam Busters
because it alerts you to a scam that is spreading
*extremely* quickly, can
easily cost you $2400 or more, and is difficult to
avoid unless you are
aware of it.

We'd like to thank Verizon for bringing this scam to
our attention. This
scam has also been identified by the National Fraud
Information Center and
is costing victims a lots of money.

There are lots of different permutations of this scam.

HERE'S HOW IT WORKS:

You will receive a message on your answering machine
or your pager, which
asks you to call a number beginning with area code
809.
The reason you're asked to call varies.
It can be to receive information about a family member
who has been ill, to
tell you someone has been arrested, died, to let you
know you have won a
wonderful prize, etc. In each case, you are told to
call the 809 number
right away. Since there are so many new area codes
these days, people
unknowingly return these calls.

If you call from the US, you will apparently be
charged $2425 per-minute.
Or, you'll get a long recorded message. The point is,
they will try to keep
you on the phone as long as possible to increase the
charges. Unfortunately,
when you get your phone bill, you'll often be charged
more than $24,100.00.

WHY IT WORKS:

The 809 area code is located in the Bri tish Virgin
Islands (The Bahamas).
The 809 area code can be used as a "pay-per-call"
number, similar to 900
numbers in the US.
Since 809 is not in the US, it is not covered by U.S.
regulations of 900
numbers, which require that you be notified and warned
of charges and rates
involved when you call a pay-per-call" number.

There is also no requirement that the company provide
a time period during
which you may terminate the call without being
charged. Further, where as
many U.S. homes that have 900 number blocking to avoid
these kinds of
charges, do not work in preventing calls to the 809
area code.

We recommend that no matter how you get the message,
if you are asked to
call a number with an 809 area code that you don't
recognize, just disregard
the message.

Be wary of email, or calls, asking you to call an 809
area code number. It's
important to prevent becoming a victim of this scam,
since trying to fight
the charges afterwards can become a real nightmare.
That's because you did actually make the call.
If you complain, both your local phone company and
your long distance
carrier will not want to get involved and will most
likely tell you that
they are simply providing the billing for the foreign
company. You'll end
up dealing with a foreign company that argues they
have done nothing wrong.


Please forward this entire message to your friends,
family and colleagues to
help them become aware of this scam.

Sandi Van Handel
AT&T Field Service Manager
(920)687-904

 

[SmashMouth]

Good stuff AR.. Thanks for posting..
I work for AT&T and have heard of the scam, but to the best of my knowledge it has beed foiled. One interesting fact though is that noone with that name works for AT&T now, or was employed by us in the last 5 yrs. I have access to a website with all AT&T employees, with all their contact info. So either that email is very old or it was a scam in itself.
Thanks anyway though!!

 

[SixFive]

a little more information from snopes about this. Ar's post was mostly true:

Origins: Yes,
this scam is real, but four important pieces of information to keep in mind are:


Not every phone number in the 809 area code is part of this scam, and calling such a number will not necessarily result in exorbitantly large charges on your phone bill. Most 809 numbers are ordinary, legitimate phone numbers.

This scam has been used with other area codes besides 809.

The amounts of money involved have been greatly exaggerated as this warning has circulated on the Internet over the past several years.

This scam is not very common; the average U.S. resident is unlikely to ever encounter it.
The scheme preys upon U.S. and Canadian residents unfamiliar with the complexities of the phone system (which is most of us). Most of us expect that when we place to a call a standard area code + exchange + phone number combination (e.g., 213-555-1212), we're calling a person or entity located in the U.S. or Canada -- connections outside of those countries requiring the caller to first enter a country code, then a number generally different in format from the standard we're used to. However, some foreign territories and countries (such as the Dominican Republic or the British Virgin Islands) have also been assigned area codes, and therefore their phone numbers look like the "standard" phone numbers we're used to. Scammers use a variety of schemes to dupe North Americans into calling these numbers by sending messages to pagers, fax machines, e-mail addresses, or answering machines, accompanied by notifications that the recipients need to call or fax them back because:


They have won sweepstakes or lottery prizes they must call to claim.

A family member is desperately ill or injured.

A bill or credit card debt is past due and needs to straightened out immediately to avoid collection action or an endangered credit rating.

They are being offered solicitations to become "mystery shoppers" who will be well compensated for a few hours work per day. (The "applicants" are kept on the phone through a lengthy sign-up procedure that never results in anyone's getting a job.)

They are being considered for employment and must transmit lengthy forms covering quotations on proposed jobs or information about their services and prices.
Once the victim places a call, he is connected to a fax machine, lengthy recorded message, or a pay-per-call service with a hefty up-front fee, all intended to keep him on the line as long as possible while the clock ticks and the charges mount. The scammer's foreign phone company then bills the victim via his local phone company, splitting the monies collected with the scammers and leaving the victim little or no recourse since the foreign phone company operates outside U.S. jurisidiction and is therefore not subject to U.S. laws (especially regulations requiring the operators of pay-per-call services notify callers in advance how much they will be charged for each call and offer them an opportunity to hang up without incurring any charges).

As mentioned above, the amounts of money involved in these scams have been greatly exaggerated (probably by computer-introduced transcription errors) to the point that readers are now warned they may be charged more than $2,400 per minute if they fall for this scam! Actually, a victim might realistically be taken for $25 to $100, but not thousands of dollars. This scheme works a variety of Caribbean area codes, not just the 809 area code mentioned above (which now belongs exclusively to the Dominican Republic, the British Virgin Islands having switched to 284), but 809 seems to work especially well because many people associate it with toll-free 800 numbers and believe they will incur no charges for calling such a number. This scam took off when the government cracked down on domestic 900-number abuses several years ago, but it isn't especially common any more, and most consumer watchdog organizations report they receive far, far more calls from people concerned about the e-mailed warnings than from actual victims.

Alerts have been been posted at the site of the National Fraud Information Center alerting businessmen especially to "faxback" solicitations employing the "809" callback trick (such as one sprung on a newspaper that received a call from entities representing a purported hotel developer in the Dominican Republic asking for advertising rate quotes and claiming that "start-up pressures prevent us at this time from using the mails" to request rate cards).

The Better Business Bureau strongly recommends that no matter how consumers are approached, if they are asked to respond to an "809" area code call, they should investigate further or simply disregard the message. (There is, of course, nothing wrong with talking to people who live in this area code if you happen to know them. All cautions regarding the 809 code apply only to solicitations to contact folks unknown to you.) If you have to call an a number in an area code that's unfamiliar to you, you can use an Area Decoder to check it out first.

 

[Terryray]

modem hijack version more common

modem hijack version more common

I heard them talk about this on Clark Howard show.

website (usually porn one) you surf to will silently hijack your modem and redial you to place that costs mucho bucks per minute.


long distance carriers all know the scam and don't do much to block it. Makes them money too. AT+T being sued in class action suit over it now.


article on it here...............http://clarkhoward.com/topics/porn_charges.html

and some folks experience here............http://clarkhoward.com/topics/tv_modem_hijacking.html

 

[djv]

Get a calling card from Sam's Club. And maybe Wall Mart has them to. Make sure where ever you get one no charges for hook up. Read what it says carefully. Cost you about 3 cents a minute 3.3 something like that. But there are no other charges (none). Use that and you cant get in trouble with these scams. And no one knows whos calling when you call. I have a 600 minute one. I got so sick of my local phone company charging for any hook up calls and then taxing the bill three times. Enough was enough. Now I have a regular phone bill taxed once for 31 bucks. And my calling card with tax cost $22.95. And that sucker last about 6 months. The 45 to 50 dollar a month phone bill is history. Long distance was $240 a year now less then 48 bucks.