Phone Scams
The Facts
About The 809 Area Code Scam
Fraudsters have been distributing bogus
e-mails through the Internet that are purported to come from AT&T. The
topic, a phone scam involving the 809 area code. The scam itself is real,
however, the e-mail and warning contain erroneous information. AT&T would
like to set the record straight and separate fact from fiction and has
provided the information below.
The 809 area code scam first surfaced five
years ago and continues to victimize consumers on occasion, although much
less frequently than in the past. And there have been far more inquiries
recently than consumers actually being victimized.
How the Scam Works:
In most cases a message is left on an
answering machine or pager requesting the recipient call a number
immediately for one of several reasons. The most common involves calling
for information about a relative who has died, been arrested or injured.
When consumers fall prey and call the number, the scam artist attempts to
keep the caller on the line for as long as possible to increase the
caller’s long distance calling charges.
The bogus e-mail claims the 809 area code
sends calls to the British Virgin Islands, when in fact 809 is the country
code for the Dominican Republic.
The e-mail also warns consumers that
dialing the 809 area code will result in charges of $2,400 per minute.
That simply isn’t true. The basic rate for a call to the Dominican
Republic is less than $3 a minute although some 809 numbers terminate with
pay-per-call services that permit the levy of additional fees. Since
numbers located offshore are not subject to U.S. laws, there are no legal
requirements that consumers be informed in advance of the extra charge.
Help prevent identity theft from phishing scams.
 Just
when you thought it was safe to go back into your Inbox, there's a new
form of spam e-mail on the horizon. This spam is more than just unwanted
and annoying. It could lead to the theft of your credit card numbers,
passwords, account information, or other personal data. Read on to find
out more about this new identity theft scam and to learn how to help
protect your privacy.
What is phishing?
Phishing is a type of deception designed to
steal your identity. In phishing scams, scam artists try to get you to
disclose valuable personal data—like credit card numbers, passwords,
account data, or other information—by convincing you to provide it under
false pretenses. Phishing schemes can be carried out in person or over the
phone, and are delivered online through spam e-mail or pop-up windows.
How does phishing work?
A phishing scam sent by e-mail may start
with con artists who send millions of e-mail messages that appear to come
from popular Web sites or sites that you trust, like your bank or credit
card company. The e-mail messages, pop-up windows, and the Web sites they
link to appear official enough that they deceive many people into
believing that they are legitimate. Unsuspecting people too often respond
to these requests for their credit card numbers, passwords, account
information, or other personal data.
What does a phishing scam look like?
As scam artists become more sophisticated,
so do their phishing e-mail messages and pop-up windows. They often
include official-looking logos from real organizations and other
identifying information taken directly from legitimate Web sites.
To make these phishing e-mail messages look
even more legitimate, the scam artists may place a link in them that
appears to go to the legitimate Web site, but it actually takes you to a
phony scam site or possibly a pop-up window that looks exactly like the
official site. These copycat sites are also called "spoofed" Web sites.
Once you're at one of these spoofed sites, you might unwittingly send
personal information to the con artists. They then often use your
information to purchase goods, apply for a new credit card, or otherwise
steal your identity.
More email and phishing scams
The Spoof Email hoax and fake web page
scams are making up a huge portion of online identity theft and fraud
reports nowadays.
The
Email Hoax and the Fake Web Page Scam -
Scammers are sending masses of spoof or
fake email hoaxes out
in an attempt to acquire eBay, Paypal, AOL, Yahoo, Earthlink, MSN,
Hotmail, Citibank, Barclays, Nat West, Nationwide, Halifax Bank users'
identities, passwords, credit card numbers and pins and bank account
details to commit fraud. Reports of this kind of
identity theft (also known as
phishing) are prolific, and have
regularly featured in tv and news articles.
Use different passwords, many internet
users become complacent using a standard logon and password for a
multitude of site. Should you fall victim to an email spoof the first
thing the thief will do is login to your account and look for other
account information. Say they got you eBay user information, from
that they could see that you may be using PayPal or local bank to pay for
items. They will then in turn attempt to login to those other accounts and
clean you out as well as gain additional information to commit ID theft. [more
information]
Here are the latest email scams.
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