SCAM ALERT - How To Avoid The "BIG Telephone Bill" Scam

HOW TO THIS SCAM WORKS

You get a call, an e-mail or a fax advising you that for some very important reason, you must call a long distance number. The reason may be to collect some money, avoid a lawsuit, etc. When you call back the long distance phone number, you get charged a big fee for every minute you are on the phone, plus the cost of an international call, because the phone number works just like a 900 area code phone number, BUT YOU AREN'T TOLD THIS! The reason you are not told this is because you are actually calling a foreign country that does not enforce laws requiring the person who answers the phone to advise you that you will be billed a fee for every minute you are on the phone with them. Their goal is to keep you on the phone as long as possible because they make more money.

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF

Below are suggestions about how to protect yourself:

• Check out any area code you are not familiar with it, BEFORE YOU CALL IT BACK. Click here to find out where an area code is located. If the area code is in the US, you generally should not have concerns as they would have to tell you if there was a fee being charged to you. However, in some rare cases, these scam artists have been known to start with a US phone number and forward it unbeknowst to you, to one of these foreign numbers that charges you a fee. The chances of this happening to you is quite remote.
• If it is an area code from the Caribbean area, click here to see the list of area codes and prefixes that are suspected (no guarantees on accuracy) of being telescam phone numbers.