LATEST SCAM - Beware *72

Jeez, as if mrsreindeer doesn't have enough on her plate now that I'm back at work and she's dealing with a 3-week old baby...

She gets a call yesterday COLLECT.

And yeah, I know, I know...why on Earth would she accept the charges.

Well, she didn't at first.

But then the bastard called back, COLLECT, and no name, just EMERGENCY.

Yeah, fishy, but she was worried.

So she accepted.

The guy on the other end tells her a relative has been arrested for parking tickets.

RIIIIIIIGHT.

He doesn't say the name of said relative, just that he's been arrested, A TALL WHITE GUY.

While the caller doesn't have our 'relative's' name, he does have the arresting officer's name, Officer Cox.

How convenient.

The guy even has a made up booking number for our 'relative'. Booking number 1962610 over at Wayside Jail.

All this information the guy told mrsreindeer to write down.

The caller then instructed mrsreindeer to dial *72 and then (xxx)xxx-xxxx.

I looked it up.

It's a Malibu, California number....guess they've gotta pay the mortgage somehow!

And do you know what happens when you dial *72?

You dial *72 (which mrsreindeer did not...she hung up and called me) and ALL of your calls get forwarded to that number.

So the person at that number (I called it...some person named 'Sy') gets all of your personal calls and tries to gather personal info about you so that they can eventuall rip you off...THAT is the scam.

BEWARE & have a little fun and go ahead and call that number.

I called it saying I was Citibank looking for Mr. Jones. Sy said Mr. Jones didn't live there.

I then called the police and they couldn't take a report because it was only a 'suspected' scam.

They gave me the number to the Secret Service and I called 'em. The guy there was a little more accepting, took down the information but also said that since no 'loss' occured, he didn't think much could be done.

Oh well, too bad.

But you folks, be careful!