A new type of scam?

Tonight I got a collect call from the Duval County Jail. The machine notified me that my line does not accept collect calls so I would need to enter in my credit card information to setup a "pre-paid account".

I think this is a scam.

I have a landline for just the gate at my complex. I think maybe three people know the number and none of them would be in Duval.

My hunch is this. They pick an area code (407) and then find a county in the area code (Duval). Perhaps they do a little research to find out what county in that area code has the highest crime rates. They then auto-dial all the phone numbers in the area asking for credit card information to accept this call. If you had a normal land line then it might really be your friend so whats a few dollars to find out. The scammers at that point have your credit card info and your phone number which they can reverse lookup to get your name and address. At that point they have everything they need.

Could it have just been someone dialed the wrong number? Perhaps...but my gut feeling is this is a scam.

Anyone else ever get called like this?

Tags: collect call, CollectCall, duval, scan

July 14th, 2008 | (6 Comments)

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