This morning at 12:38 AM I received a call from 713-981-0098 stating I was listed as emergency contact for someone in jail. They said I needed to contact *721-323-458-8263 and talked to Lt. Brown regarding booking number 3553220. I researched *72 placed in front of the phone number and discovered it is a way of allowing the other phone number to charge calls etc. to your phone. I contacted the police by 1:00 AM and they told me they could do nothing because I didn't fall for the scam and they were too busy.
I did a reverse phone lookup on the internet on 323-458-8263 and found it was a cell phone belonging to someone in a near by city. I researched the 713-981-0098 number and discovered it is in Texas and is the valid number used by the jail systems in the United States.
According to the way the scam works, your phone gets charged and you have to pay it. The people in jail get the money put on their books. The police will not do anything about this crime because they have other things to do. The phone company can not do anything about it because it is a feature they offer and you are the one authorizing it by entering *72 and the number. It can be cancelled by entering *73.
Please let others know about this type of crime so they do not fall for it.
*72 is call forwarding, at least for FIOS. Of course you don't want to fowrard your calls to a jail, but don't see how that gives them free access.
Star Code Reference Chart
These are the access codes you can use to activate/deactivate
these FiOS Digital Voice features. For additional instructions,
please turn to the appropriate feature section.
FiOS Digital Voice Feature Telephone Access Codes
Call Forwarding – Activate *72
Call Forwarding – Disable *73
Call Return *69
Call Trace *57
Call Waiting – Activate *43
Call Waiting – Disable *44
Call Waiting – Disable per Call Activate *70
Outgoing Caller ID Block – Activate *31
Outgoing Caller ID Block – Disable *32
Outgoing Caller ID – Block Per Call Activate *67
Outgoing Caller ID – Allow Per Call Activate *82
Speed Dial 100 program
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To use, dial # + 2-digit speed dial code *75
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