Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Wed, 26 Jun 91 20:15:04 EDT From: Patricia A Dunkin Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Telescam: Be Careful Who You Send Checks To Message-ID: Organization: TELECOM Digest Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 494, Message 3 of 5 Lines: 51 The guy in AT&T Corporate Security to whom I reported the following said that it sounds like a variant on a recent popular sort of fraud, where the nasties get your checking account number and put through a bank draft for more of your money than you planned to give them. Yesterday at work I got a call from a computer that claimed to be "The Award Notification Center" (no other identification) and telling me to call 312-733-7000 between 9AM and 9PM Eastern within 24 hours to claim my "award." The recording also gave me a claim number, B44. Knowing it *had* to be bogus, I decided to check it out. (Good for laughs, anyway.) A human answered and gave me her first name (still no identification of the company) and then started to ask me for my name. When I tried to get her to tell me what company she was working for, she began to sound defensive, repeating *identical* words several times -- she must have been reading from the script for handling-callers- who-ask-too-many-questions -- then put me on hold, came back, (obviously) read off another script describing the trip for two to Hawaii that was my "award," told me to call 312-988-8191 to claim it, said "Aloha," and hung up before I could say another word. The second number was answered by a recording that told me roughly the same thing the human did concerning the trip I had "won" to Hawaii, instructed me to send a self-addressed stamped envelope and a check for $12.95 to a Chicago address, and assured me that the travel office fees would not exceed one Y-class fare to Hawaii. That must have been the punch line. It seemed likely that AT&T Security would be interested -- after all, I did get the call at work, and sleazy telemarketers don't make carriers look good. The security person I spoke with was friendly and helpful, and explained as mentioned above that getting hold of checking account numbers for unauthorized purpo$e$ might be the real goal of all this. He also said that the IRS and other legal authorities are interested in this sort of nonsense and promised to pass the information on to them. Oh, and they never did ask for the claim number -- if someone else wants to use it, I wouldn't object. :-) Pat Dunkin (pad@groucho.att.com) [Moderator's Note: Well here we go again, dear readers! This organization pops up from time to time, as readers of the 'Randy message' will recall. This time around, no further investigation is needed. We know *all about* this bunch, don't we! :) In case you are interested, I've heard nothig further from Randy in recent weeks. PAT]