BEWARE

[ted]

Picked this off another forum:

I received a telephone call last evening from an individual identifying himself as an AT&T Service technician who was conducting a test on telephone lines. He stated that to complete the test I should touch nine(9), zero(0), the pound sign (#), and then hang up.

> > > Luckily, I was suspicious and refused. > > > > Upon contacting the telephone company, I was informed that by pushing 90#,

you give the requesting individual full access to your telephone line, which enables them to place long distance calls billed to your home phone number.

> > > I was further informed that this scam has been originating from many local

jails/prisons. I have also verified this information with UCB Telecom, Pacific Bell, MCI, Bell Atlantic and GTE. Please beware.

> > > DO NOT press 90# for ANYONE.

[gary]

This is a halfway hoax. This will not work with a residential phone, however it has been known to work with some commercial PBX systems, where you must dial 9 to get an outside line.

[Ba r r y]

Ahhh. Jeeze!

This is as old as the hills. It ONLY works from certain, old, very specific PBXes. Most of the PBXes that would allow it are long gone, converted to a central office switch based software PBX. It will not work from your home phone unless you have Ma and Pa Kettle's Juice Can and String telephone company. Even in that case, it probably WON'T work.

The key combo allows the incoming caller to be transferred to an outgoing long distance trunk.

Barry

[Norman D. Crow]

[Keith Nuttle]

When you block by caller ID how do you distinguish legitimize calls from unknowns and calls for tel marketers and other junk callers.

It you have a business handling calls from customers, old and new, you will miss new oprotunities for sales by blocking all calls based on Caller ID.

[Swingman]

Do you fully understand what caller ID is, and how to use it to block a telemarketer's number?

And just how is that?

[Baxter]

Get a voice modem and something like PhoneTray

Answer on the 2nd (or 3rd, etc) ring.

[Baxter]

Keith Nuttle wrote in news:llqln8$fh7$1 @speranza.aioe.org:

Use something like PhoneTray

-- you can block known spammers and whitelist known customers. Works off CallerID. PhoneTray maintains a list of known spammers which the software uses to block calls. Of course, this only works for land lines.

[Ed Pawlowski]

How do you block a telemarketer by caller ID? Tomorrow they have another number, next day another. Most are a one shot call anyway.