It's a phone scam known as the inmate phone scam, the *72 scam or even 72# scam. As we wrote in the story, inmates prey on your good nature. They call you collect, claim they only have one phone call and misdialed your number. If you stay on the line, they want you to dial a number for them and tell the person on the other end a message.
The number they give you will have the *72 number in it. If you dial it, that means you have just forwarded your calls to that new number.
It got an Humble resident:
What Schneider didn't know was that *72 is no extension, it's the code to activate call forwarding. Once Schneider entered the code and the number, calls to her home went straight to another phone, and the person on the other end accepted collect call after call from the Harris County jail at three dollars a pop. Charges were sent to Schneider's bill. It totaled over $139.She's not the only victim. You wouldn't believe the amount of calls and emails we get about this problem.
The Harris County Jail knows about it. Heck, they get money from it. They told Jeff themselves:
Major Dan McWilliams with the Harris County Sheriff's Office said, "Frankly it is very beneficial tool to us in the jail here. I refer to it as kind of a pacifier essentially. It keeps the inmates calm if they know they can stay in contact with their families."What happens if you've fallen for the scam?There is a financial incentive for the phones to remain behind bars. Jail officials admit the county gets nearly two dollars for every collect call made from the jail. Officials say the public can easily put an end to the scam.
First dial *73. It deactivates the call forwarding. Then call your phone company and explain what happened.The best advice we have on avoiding the scam, just hang up! CONTACT: Leave me a Houston or Texas media news tip | COMMENT: Click to leave your thoughts on this post here
