FW: FYI - Telephone Scam

[kentborg at borg.org (Kent Borg)]

On Mon, Feb 10, 2003 at 11:38:01AM -0500, Timothy M. Lyons wrote:
[about a scam whereby a nasty caller can get control of your phone by
tricking you into dialling 90# on your touchtine phone]

I don't believe it.  This sounds like an urban legend, and with a
little with Google searching the first hit is a site saying that it is
a hoax:

<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=scam+%2290%23%22+touchtone>

However, it seems there is a grain of truth in this, but the warning
is worded all wrong to be useful for the real risk.  Here is a more
sensible version: 

In most office phone systems it is possible to transfer a caller to a
different extension.  In some office phone systems (but not most) it
might be possible to transfer a caller to an outgoing line with a dial
tone at which point s/he could maybe make another call.  If your phone
system allows this, don't transfer strangers to unused outside lines.
That makes sense, doesn't it?  However, I have worked in several
places with the ability to transfer calls and none of them would have
been activated by a "90#".  They usually require pressing a button
labeled "transfer", of flashing the hook and dialing other stuff.  And
I don't think any of them would transfer to an outgoing dial tone.

Certainly don't do everything any stranger asks you, but also don't
listen to mysterious warnings, make sure they make sense and have some
reason to them.


-kb