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Tweeters,

A knowledgeable friend pointed me to this website at U Mich:

Bob Mauritsen
bluetooth at csi.com
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The "90#" Telephone Scam Warning Is A Hoax

by Bruce P. Burrell (bpb at umich.edu
for the U-M Virus Busters (virus.busters at umich.edu)
Last Modified: 23 February 1998

This information can be freely reproduced in any medium, as long as
the information is unmodified.

We first heard of the "90#" telephone scam from Harold Lines on 13
February 1998. Thanks, Harold!

While this seemed unlikely to be something that would work on most
phones, we checked to make sure. A security expert for U.S. West who
told me the following:

If a phone company needs to repair a phone, they NEVER call you
to assist in the repair. Either they do all testing remotely, or
they do it in person. [It's a
good idea to demand identification should a telephone repair
person appear unexpectedly on your doorstep, of course!]

Hence this warning falls into the "vaguely good general advice"
category, like "wear your raincoat when it's raining" and "don't
accept candy from strangers." The
problem is that the advice in this "scam alert" isn't very useful --
if there are any phone systems susceptible to this scam, they are
very rare. That makes forwarding
this "advice" about as useful as telling a Sahara Desert dweller to
wear a raincoat.

Here's the text of the "scam alert":


On Saturday, 24 January 1998, Naval Air Station, Joint Reserve
Base,
New Orleans' Quarterdeck received a telephone call from an
individual
identifying himself as an AT&T Service Technician that was
running a
test on our telephone lines. He stated that to complete the
test the
QMOW should touch nine (9), zero (0), pound sign (#) and hang
up.
Luckily, the QMOW was suspicious and refused. Upon contacting
the
telephone company we were informed that by pushing 90# you end
up
giving the individual that called you access to your telephone
line
and allows them to place a long distance telephone call, with
the
charge appearing on your telephone call. We were further
informed
that this scam has been originating from many of the local
jails/prisons. Please "pass the word".

Please do not forward this -- or anything similar -- to all your
friends.

Instead, you should reply to the sender -- and as far back up the
email chain as you have energy -- informing the originators that
this is just junk email. For this
particular case, I suggest that you provide a pointer to this URL
(http://www.umich.edu/~wwwitd/virus-busters/hoaxes/phone.html)
For virus or hoax info, please see our main page
(http://www.umich.edu/~wwwitd/virus-busters/) or go to another
reputable site, like DataFellows (leaving our site).

-BPB



Last updated: Monday, 23-Feb-1998 04:33:24 EST.
University of Michigan Virus Busters - virus.busters at umich.edu

visits to this page since 23 February 1998 04:09 EDT