Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1991 17:06:48 -0400 From: Colin Plumb Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Explain This Scam Message-ID: Organization: Array Systems Computing, Inc., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA 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 497, Message 2 of 10 Lines: 24 In article spencer@med.umich.edu (Spencer W. Thomas) writes: > An inmate makes a collect call to a friend whose phone has a three-way > calling feature. The friend then pushes a button on the phone and > dials the phone company, with the prisoner still on the line. > When the phone company comes on the line, the customer is slient as > the inmate orders a new phone under a phony name. > "We have no way of knowing it's an inmate who has called collect," > Michigan Bell spokesman Dean Hovey said. I think that what's happening is that the business office is saying "yes, we'll pay" to the operator asking who'll accept the charges, and somehow the call gets charged to them. The prisoner makes a phony business transaction (ordering service to a bogus name), and the business office hangs up. They are now talking to their friend, and the business office is paying. Colin