IP: some more on 809 issue from scambusters

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Title: approve:ggmu  some more on 809 issue from scambusters

------ Forwarded Message
From: Ian Angus <ianangus@angustel.ca>
Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2002 08:44:13 -0500
To: farber@cis.upenn.edu
Subject: Re: IP: some more on 809 issue from scambusters

Dave ...

For IP if you think it worthwhile:

With all due respect to the Scambusters people, who seem just to have relayed news third-hand...

I have been following telephone ripoffs and related scams for nearly 15 years. Gerry Blackwell and I co-wrote the book "Phone Pirates" (now out of print) which dealt extensively with long distance and cellular fraud.

I have been hearing about the "809 Scam" for at least seven years. I've seen hundreds of messages warning of huge phone bills resulting from calling 809. 

And yet I have NEVER, not once, met or even heard of an actual victim. There have been a few cases that were obvious pranks committed by people who read the warning letters, but the long distance charges involved were trivial. The cost to call 809 is your carrier's current long distance charge for the Dominican Republic. Period. Not $25 or $2500 a mionute, ever.

There are real long distance frauds going on ... but if the "809 Scam" ever really happened, it is long dead.

Ian Angus
Angus TeleManagement Group
www.angustel.ca <http://www.angustel.ca/> 

------ End of Forwarded Message