Washington County authorities are warning residents in the greater Houston area that jail inmates have dusted off an old telephone scam, and say the same thing is happening from other area jails.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office issued the warning Tuesday, saying they had learned that some inmates in the Washington County Jail have used jail phones to steal long distance service from unsuspecting residents. The Washington County Jail is located in Brenham, but sheriff’s personnel said they have information that inmates in Harris, Waller and Fayette counties are doing the same thing.
The scam involves inmate asking the person receiving a call from the jail to dial in *72 on their phone. Typically, the inmate says they have been arrested and are trying to reach a family member, but mis-dialed. They then ask the person receiving the call to “forward” their call by using the *72 function because the inmate is allowed only one call.
If the person receiving the call complies with the request, the *72 function actually forwards all calls to the new number. After that, the third number can be used for long distance or even international calling, all of which is billed to the original number.
Washington County authorities received three complaints in a 30-minute period from residents who were scammed recently. Those complaints led to the warning being issued.
Ironically, one Washington County sheriff’s employee received a similar call, that one from an inmate in the Harris County Jail.
Kathy Eversole, a resident of Long Meadow Farms between Katy and Richmond, also recently received a call.
“The caller ID said it was coming from the Waller County Jail, so I was suspicious when I answered it. The caller said he’d been arrested for an old traffic ticket he’d forgotten to pay,” Eversole said. “He said the jailers didn’t let him have his glasses, so he mis-dialed trying to call his home.”
Eversole said the caller asked her to forward the call by using the *72 function because he was only allowed a single call. Luckily for Eversole, she smelled a rat.
“The whole thing just didn’t sound right, so I hung up. Later on, I called the phone company and they told me it was a scam,” Eversole said.
Jail authorities say the scam is difficult to control because prisoners have the right to use the phone for communication. Every conversation cannot be monitored, they said.
A spokesman for AT&T said anyone receiving such a call should simply hang up and report the incident to their phone company. Anyone who believes they may have fallen victim to the scam should report it to both their phone service provider and local police.
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