I received this in an email from my company's corporate security department, then received it in a memo which I had to sign off and return as being read, meaning that somebody in the company probably has been burned on this already. Just thought I would pass the info on.



"Telephone Fraud Scheme

AT&T recently reported a fraudulent scheme that involves area codes 809, 284 and 876. The scheme is perpetrated in a variety of ways but usually involves someone leaving a message, page or e-mail asking the victim to place a return phone call to one of the three area codes. The message usually focuses on one of several areas: a family member was admitted to the hospital or arrested, a death occurred in the family or a wonderful prize was won.

The 809, 284 and 876 area codes can be used as “pay-per-call” numbers (similar to 900 numbers) because the areas called are not in the U.S. and are not subject to our regulations. Some victims have been charged up to $2,400 per minute and $24,000 for a single phone call. When the victim calls the number, they are kept on the phone as long as possible either by being placed on hold or by listening to a lengthy recorded message.

AT&T says that once the victim has been billed for the call, it is very difficult to dispute the charges because the victim actually placed the call. The individual’s local phone company and long distance carrier usually do not get involved. Consequently, the victim is left to resolve the situation with a foreign company that claims to have done nothing wrong.

In the event that you receive a message to call a number with one of the above area codes, please DO NOT return the phone call. Forward the information to Internal Audit for further investigation."

Pretty sick of people to do something like this, I can easily see the elderly being a huge targt for these people.

I actually just read this one on Snopes not too long ago and was a bit surprised to see it is TRUE.

Here is a link

Snopes is God. (http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/809.htm)

You'd think they could make international country calling codes longer than 3 digits to avoid people passing them off as US area codes.

How is money collected on the scams? I am just curious as how they work. Wouldn't the phone company charge?

I've worked in telecom for 12 years. The interesting thing is that you don't have to pay the charge.

The charge will come on the back pages of your local phone bill.

Look at your phone bill. There will be regulated and nonregulated charges listed on the front. This will be a nonregulated charge, meaning that the phone company cannot terminate your phone service for refusing to pay it. So all you have to do is call the phone company and dispute the charge. They may want to give you the runaround, but they can't force the collection. Nor can they terminate services based on unpaid nonregulated charges.

So then they have to try to put it on your credit report, which is not going to be easy. Any collection or billing agency that's trying to enforce fraudalent charges will subject themselves to a huge liability suit, so most won't collect on such charges. It's the kind of thing that often just fades away. Usually one or two phone calls and one letter can do the trick.