An E-Mail Phone Scam
Date: Thu, 3 Oct 96 9:00:34 PDT
From: "Peter G. Neumann" [email protected]
Subject: E-mail scam from "Global Communications"
Another e-mail scam has appeared, informing you as a would-be victim that
you have "only 24 hours to settle your outstanding account" and suggesting
that you can call an 809 number to avoid subsequent court action. The call
goes to a Caribbean telephone company (apparently in Tortola in the British
Virgin Islands) and costs you $3 to $5 (and presumably more if you are dumb
enough to hang around for their strategy of putting you on hold with a
sequence of creative recorded messages). The FROM: address "Global
Communications"@demon.net is BOGUS. This is a cheaper variant on a recent
809-900 pager scam, which costs you $25 if you return the call. [Source:
*San Francisco Chronicle*, 3 Oct 1996, A2.]
Subject: 809 Area Code - Page Scam
The Orange County Register this am referenced a pager scam. In this
situation, callers are paged numbers with an 809 area code. Callers are
charged $25 a minute. Do not respond to such pages. Lloyd and I have each
been paged with this number this morning.
From: Johnson, Jeff -Security Admin
Subject: RE: 809 Area Code - Page Scam
FYI, this is an old scam with a new twist. In April, the National Fraud
Information Center issued a warning on 809 numbers. 809 is an international
long distance call to the Caribbean. Crooks use these numbers as
per-pay-calls to get around US restrictions on 900 numbers. The foreign
phone companies give the crooks a rebate everytime someone calls the number
and because it is pay-per-call, the rate is substantially higher.
The original scam was to leave the 809 number on an answering machine and
tell the recipient that it was urgent to reply. The caller would hear a
lengthy recorded message and then receive a big surprise with their phone
bill. I confirmed with PacBell Security that the new twist is to obtain the
area code and prefix assigned to pagers in an area (pager, cellular, and fax
prefixes are received in each area code). The crooks then use an
auto-dialer or they manually dial all possible numbers (i.e. (AC) XXX-0000
through (AC) XXX-9999). When they get a pager, they enter the 809 number
for call back.
NFIC and PacBell suggest that no one return a 809 page unless they are
expecting someone in the Caribbean to page them. At this time, it is the
only way to prevent being victimized.
[email protected]
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Forwarded for your information -- Please read and heed. This scam was
discussed on talk radio in the Bay area this week, and on the WMAL
morning drive show last week.
If you get any messages on your voice mail (or pager) asking you to
return an "urgent" call to a "toll free" number starting with 809, DON'T
do it.
It's the latest scam: A group of computer hacks have set up a whole
bunch of exchanges in the 809 area code (the Caribbean islands, outside
US law) and created pass-throughs to 900 numbers in New York. Then they
set up automatic voice message systems to dial thousands of exchanges
around the US leaving you an "urgent" message to call back.
The scam works basically like this:
You get home and notice that the message light is blinking on
your answering machine. You listen to the message, which has
several wrinkles, but the best one is the caller asks you to
call a number beginning with area code 809 to receive
information about a family member who has been ill. (They may
also tell you someone has been arrested, died, you have won a
wonderful prize, etc.)
In any event, concerned or curious, you make the call.
Sometimes the phone will be answered by a person who claims to
speak broken English. (The idea is to keep you on the line to
build up charges.) Or, sometimes you will just get a long
recorded message. The bottom lines is, when your phone bill
comes, you see this incredible charge, oftentimes more than
$100.00 dollars!
Crooks are using the 809 numbers as "pay-per-calls" and to get
around the US Regulations and 900 number blocking. Every time
you call the number, they get a greatly inflated rebate from
the foreign phone company. Since the 809 numbers are in the
Caribbean, they aren't bound by US 900# regulations that
require them to warn you of the charge and rate involved, and
also to provide a time period during which you may terminate
the call without being charged.
The newest twist to this scam is to page people using the 809
numbers. With the new area code changes, people unknowingly
are returning these calls. When the bill comes, there are
HUGE charges for the calls.
My suggestion is 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, DON'T RETURN THE CALL! It's bad enough that
the criminal is invading your privacy, don't let them invade
you wallet as well!
Scams of this type are extremely hard to prosecute and since
you did actually make the call, neither your local phone
company or your long distance carrier will want to get
involved. They'll tell you that they are simply providing
the billing for the foreign company. You end up trying to
deal (over the phone) with a foreign company that feels they
have done no wrong. It can turn into a real nightmare!
Subject: Internet-based phone scam
From: [email protected] (Mark Israel)
Date: 1996/10/08
10-07-96 NETCOM was recently made aware of a potential
Internet-based phone "scam" that tries to scare people into
calling a long distance phone number in the 809 area code.
The 809 area code is in the British Virgin Islands
(The Bahamas), and any caller dialing the number from the
United States apparently will be charged $25 per-minute.
If you do receive an e-mail note asking you to call the
809 area code, you may wish to disregard it. Please be
leery of any unsolicited mail you may receive.
The basic content of the e-mail note is as follows:
===============================================================
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 1996 00:57:11 -0700
From: "Global Communications"@demon.net
Subject: Unpaid account
I am writing to give you a final 24hrs to settle your
outstanding account. If I have not received the settlement
in full, I will commence legal proceedings without further
delay. If you would like to discuss this matter to avoid
court action, call Mike Murray at Global Communications on
+1 809 496 2700.
===============================================================
And a Variation...
There was a varation of that scam going around a few years ago. What
they would do is call your house after caseing it and say that a
relative or some such had been in an accident would you please come to
the hospital. While you were gone they would loot the place. just
something to be wary of.
Walt