The old traditional (wired) phone scam
involving the 90# buttons on your business telephone is still
around.
How This Scam Occurs
You receive a call at your office from
someone claiming to be a telephone company employee
investigating technical problems with your line, or checking up
on calls supposedly placed to other states or countries from
your line. The caller asks you to aid the investigation by
either dialing 90# or transferring him/her to an outside line
before hanging up the telephone receiver. By doing this, you may
be enabling the caller to place calls that are billed to your
office telephone number.
What You Should Know
-
Telephone company employees checking for
technical and other types of telephone service or billing
problems would not call and ask a subscriber to dial a
specific series of numbers before hanging up the telephone
receiver.
-
Telephone company employees would not
request subscribers to connect the caller to an outside line
before hanging up the receiver.
-
These types of calls are made to trick
subscribers into taking actions that will enable the caller to
place fraudulent calls.
-
This scam only works if your telephone is
served by a private branch exchange (PBX) or private automatic
branch exchange (PABX).
What to Do
If your place of business utilizes either a
PBX or a PABX, you or your company telecommunications manager
should contact the manufacturer of the PBX or PABX and the
telephone companies that provide you with local and long
distance service to obtain information about the type of
security systems available to protect your telephone system from
toll fraud. You may also ask about any monitoring services that
help detect unusual telephone system usage.
Avoid Becoming a Target
To avoid becoming a target of this scam,
educate yourself and other employees about the 90# scam.
Encourage employees to take the following steps if they think
that a telephone call is fraudulent or is part of this scam:
-
Ask the caller for his/her name and
telephone number;
-
Tell the caller you are going to call the
telephone company immediately to determine whether or not
there is a problem with the line;
-
Immediately hang up the receiver; do not
dial any numbers or transfer the caller to an outside line
before hanging up;
-
Find the telephone number for your
telephone service provider and/or its security office and
report the suspicious phone call. Be prepared to provide
details of the call to the telephone company representative;
and
-
Contact your local law enforcement
officials.
For More Information
For information about other
communications issues, visit the FCC’s Consumer & Governmental
Affairs Bureau Web site at www.fcc.gov/cgb,
or contact the FCC’s Consumer Center by e-mailing
fccinfo@fcc.gov; calling
1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) voice or 1-888-TELL-FCC
(1-888-835-5322) TTY; faxing 1-866-418-0232; or writing to:
Federal Communications Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Division
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554.
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Federal Communications Commission · Consumer
& Governmental Affairs Bureau · 445 12th St. S.W. ·
Washington, DC 20554 |
1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) ·
TTY: 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322) · Fax: 1-866-418-0232 · www.fcc.gov/cgb/
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