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lalalinda
Moderator

Posts: 1647
From: nevada
Registered: Apr 2009

posted August 30, 2011 01:21 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for lalalinda     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Do Not DIAL AREA CODE 809, 284, AND 876 from the U.S. or Canada .

They get you to call by telling you that it is information about a family member who has been ill or to tell you someone has been arrested, died, or to let you know you have won a wonderful prize, etc..
In each case, you are told to call the 809 number right away. Since there are so many new area codes these days, people unknowingly return these calls.

If you call from the U.S or Canada , you will apparently be charged a minimum of
$2425 per-minute.

And you'll also get a long recorded message. The point is, they will try to keep you on the phone as long as possible to increase the charges.
WHY IT WORKS:


The 809 area code is located in the Dominican Republic ....
The charges afterward can become a real nightmare. That's because you did actually make the call. If you complain, both your local phone company and your long distance carrier will not want to get involved and will most likely tell you that they are simply providing the billing for the foreign company. You'll end up dealing with a foreign company that argues they have done nothing wrong.

Please forward this entire message to your friends, family and colleagues to help them become aware of this scam.

AT&T VERIFIES IT'S TRUE : http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=6045

SNOPES VERIFIES IT'S TRUE:
http://www.snopes.com/fraud/telephone/809..asp

AT&T Field Service Manager

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Alma Sun
Moderator

Posts: 335
From: The East Coast
Registered: Mar 2011

posted August 30, 2011 02:46 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Alma Sun     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
-.-' damn crooks..

Thanks for the heads up lala

------------------
"Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise."
— Maya Angelou

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MoonWitch
Moderator

Posts: 841
From: The Beach
Registered: Apr 2009

posted August 30, 2011 11:03 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for MoonWitch     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Snipes doesn't actually say it's all true - only partially true and greatly exaggerated.

"As mentioned above, the amounts of money involved in these scams has been greatly exaggerated (probably by computer-introduced transcription errors) to the point that readers are now warned they may be charged more than $2,400 per minute if they fall for this scam! Actually, a victim might realistically have been taken for $25 or so, but not thousands of dollars (and in most cases customers could get such charges removed from their bills by contacting their phone service providers). This scheme has been worked with a variety of Caribbean area codes, not just the 809 area code mentioned above (which now belongs exclusively to the Dominican Republic, the British Virgin Islands having switched to 284), but 809 seemed to work especially well because many people associated it with toll-free 800 numbers and believed they would incur no charges for calling such a number. This scam took off when the government cracked down on domestic 900-number abuses in the 1990s, but it isn't especially common any more, and most consumer watchdog organizations report they receive far, far more calls from people concerned about the e-mailed warnings than from actual victims. "

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Lioness
Knowflake

Posts: 3029
From:
Registered: Mar 2010

posted August 30, 2011 11:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Lioness     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I put this on my FB

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lalalinda
Moderator

Posts: 1647
From: nevada
Registered: Apr 2009

posted August 31, 2011 12:11 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for lalalinda     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This past March I got a 600$ phone bill because of calls to Canada in a one day period. Because of this I got an education in US calls to other countries.

I had been under the misconception that a foreign call meant using an international calling code. Not always, although my British friend assures me that she uses one, calls to Canada, etc. have area codes that look like ours here in the US.

I'm still raising teenagers and these days everyone has a cell phone and a lot of times it's from somewhere else.
I don't pay a lot of attention to this because my phone plan includes all calls in the US.
You can imagine my surprise when I got that bill. Luckily (maybe because it was Canada) the phone company eventually took off the charges but it took four months to do it. Unnecessary stress.

I hate the thought that any knowflake, myself included would be caught up in a phone scam. Let's just be aware.

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