A warning now about a phone scam that is tricking people into handing their phone line over to criminals.
Q13 FOX Reporter Bill Wixey shows us how it works in this week's "Keeping Your Money Safe."
Most all of us have the "call forwarding" feature on our home, business and cell phones. now, the state Attorney General's office is warning about con artists, who are using that feature to rip people off.
Kristin Alexander with the Ag's Office says the latest phone ripoff, is being perpetrated by prison inmates, and here's how it works, she says. "You'd get a phone call...and they say 'shoot I misdialed, I only have one call. would you please help me place this call to my wife, my kids are here at the station. I need to have somebody come pick them up.' Well, the number they give, has a prefix which is actually a trigger to make your phone forward incoming calls to another number."
That prefix is usually *72... that's why it's called the "Star-72 scam." Punching in that prefix allows all future calls to be billed to your number. Once you punch it in, that inmate is using your phone to call wherever they want: Other countries, 1-900 numbers, and you wouldn't even know it, until you get slapped with the bill.
Alexander says, "just know right away if somebody wants you to place a call and punch in *-anything, that's not going to an actual phone number, it's tricking you into forwarding calls into your phone."
AT&T says the bottom line on the star-72 scam: Don't ever use your call forwarding to someone you don't know. Only forward your calls when you want them to go somewhere else.