From: leichter@lrw.com (Jerry Leichter)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Phone fraud and the net
Date: 9 Jan 93 12:07:59 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: The Internet

[This message isn't about VAXes, but given INFO-VAX's wide readership, and
the large number of INFO-VAX readers who include their phone numbers in their
signature lines, I thought it was worth forwarding.  It's obviously appeared
in multiple places already; this version comes from the TELECOM Digest.

							-- Jerry]
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 03:34:36 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@proponent.com>
Subject: Sci.electronics Phone Fraud!


[Moderator's Note: Monty also passed this along for us today.  PAT]

 From: larryc@shell.portal.com (Larry WB Ching)
 Newsgroups: sci.electronics
 Subject: SCI.ELECTRONICS Phone fraud !!!
 Summary: A recent attempt to rip-off sci.electronics correspondents.
 Keywords: fraud, con artists, phone numbers
 Message-ID: <C077BC.GBn@unix.portal.com>
 Date: 1 Jan 93 23:16:23 GMT
 Sender: news@unix.portal.com
 Organization: Portal Communications  -- 408/973-9111 (voice) 408/973-8091  


 At about 6PM Thursday evening, I got a phone call. The operator said
that he had a collect call to me from Charles Pooley in New York. The
name was familiar, but I didn't remember exactly why. I said I would
accept the call, but then the "operator" said the call couldn't get
through because I had the call collect option blocked. He then said he
could pass the call through if I gave him my calling card number. I
said that I'd rather call Mr. Pooley myself, and could the "operator"
give me Mr. Pooley's number.  There was a pause, then a phone number
with a San Jose area code! It didn't occur to me until later that , if
the call was from New York, why was the call-from number (408) !??!

 I remembered that Charles and I had been corresponding on a topic
from sci.electronics. I was lucky enough to have an old message from
him lying around, and emailed him a message about my mysterious phone
call.

 Charles Pooley replyed to me today -- turns out the guy tried the
same scam on him too! But this time, the bogus operator said the
collect call was from me to Charles! Charles was also wary, and didn't
give the crook his calling card number.

 So - WATCH OUT! How this con artist chose my name and Charles' to try
is beyond me. As far as public postings in sci.electronics, I don't
think Charles and I had exchanged more than four public postings. Most
of our correspondence has been via "private" email.

 This has definitely raised my paranoia level. If, out of the millions
of public postings during 1992, someone should choose two
correspondents who have exchange only a slight amount of messages ....
I mean, why us?  Or, is there a "boilerroom" operation going on, with
a bunch of phony operators, armed with USENET listings -- calling
people with this con?

 OH! - I may have put my phone number in one of my public
sci.electronics postings - that's probably how the scamsters make
their selection. Makes sense ...

CHILDREN BEWARE!!!


larryc@shell.portal.com


[Moderator's Note: I note the public access site you use for Usenet
(Portal Com) is located in area 408 (San Jose, CA).   PAT]