Consumer Information - 9-0- # Scam
How This Scam Occurs
You receive a call at your office from someone claiming to be a telephone company
employee investigating technical problems with your line, or checking up on calls
supposedly placed to other states or countries from your line. The caller asks
you to aid the investigation by either dialing 9-0-# or transferring him/her
to an outside line before hanging up the telephone receiver. By doing this, you
may be enabling the caller to place calls that are billed to your office telephone
number.
What You Should Know
Telephone company employees checking for technical and other types of telephone
service or billing problems would not call and ask a subscriber to dial a specific
series of numbers before hanging up the telephone receiver.
Telephone company employees would not request subscribers to connect the caller
to an outside line before hanging up the receiver.
These types of calls are made to trick subscribers into taking actions that will
enable the caller to place fraudulent calls.
This scam only works if your telephone is served by a private branch exchange
(PBX) or private automatic branch exchange (PABX).
What to Do
If your place of business utilizes either a PBX or a PABX, you or your company
telecommunications manager should contact the manufacturer of the PBX or PABX
and the telephone companies that provide you with local and long distance service
to obtain information about the type of security systems available to protect
your telephone system from toll fraud. You may also ask about any monitoring
services that help detect unusual telephone system usage.
Avoid Becoming a Target
To avoid becoming a target of this scam, educate yourself and other employees
about the 9-0-# scam. Encourage employees to take the following steps if they
think that a telephone call is fraudulent or is part of this scam:
Ask the caller for his/her name and telephone number;
Tell the caller you are going to call the telephone company immediately to determine
whether or not there is a problem with the line;
Immediately hang up the receiver; do not dial any numbers or transfer the caller
to an outside line before hanging up;
Find the telephone number for your telephone service provider and/or its security
office and report the suspicious phone call. Be prepared to provide details of
the call to the telephone company representative;
contact
your local law enforcement officials.
