Scams
Don’t Fall for the Call Forwarding *72 Scam
Do not dial *72, it’s a scam!
Imagine that your phone rings late at night and someone panicked sounding is on the other end telling you that someone that you know is in serious condition in the hospital and your phone number was the last one dialed on their cell phone. They tell you that the only way for them to give you information is by having you call an official at the hospital, but first you have to dial *72 and then a number.
What you would have just done was authorized the other number as your call forwarding number. Scammers would then be able to make loads of long distance phone calls using YOUR number and you wouldn’t know about it until you receive a whopping phone bill.
Scammers from all over the world use this one all the time. It doesn’t matter what story they come up with (i.e. you’ve won an international prize, money, or cruise; sorry I dialed the wrong number on my last quarter from a payphone; my cell phone is dying and i called you by mistake; whatever! They just want you to dial *72 and then a number.
When you dial that number on your end you hear what sounds like a busy signal, and you think that your call isn’t going through. What has happened is that you’ve given the phone number that you dialed at pressing *72 the ability to use their phone but have the calls billed to yours.
What they then do is make calls to party lines, porn numbers, psychic hotlines, or international numbers racking up money on your bill and all the while you’ll be oblivious.
So, if someone calls you with a sob story, do not dial *72 because it is a scam. And if you did, dial *73 to cancel the call forwarding and alert your phone company immediately.
