"Collect call from jail scam" Topic

DO NOT accept collect calls from jails. I received a collect call from someone who mumbled their name from the local county jail.

I did NOT accept the call, which was good. Apparently (as I looked up on Google having never received such a call), if you accept the charges, the prisoner at that phone can somehow hijack your residential phone line and use it for long-distance calling (I don't know the technical aspects.)

So if someone calls you from jail- just say no. Most of us are smart enough to say no, but i know some of us are humane and want to help a fella out. Well, you may do so, if you don't mind paying a huge long-distance bill.

Of course, it could have been a legitimate call this time to me, in which case I still wouldn't accept the charges; As Jim Carey says in the movie Liar Liar: "STOP BREAKING THE LAW A**HOLE!!!!"

I received a collect call from the correctional facility a few years ago; right after I moved and got a new phone number.

I declined the call.

But, I always wondered if after the caller got out he went after whoever his was calling for not taking his calls.

What they do is tell the operator to charge the call to so-and-so, but then have the call directed to another person. When you answer the operators call with a yes you are OKing to pay for the call to another target. You get hung up on and they make that call to whomever they want. The problem is with some operators too. They come on long enough to mutter what's going on and then hang up on you if they here anything close to a yes.

Had this happen recently too. I declined the call naturally, but wondered what kind of scam this was going to be. Thanks for the info. Since we've been robbed before, I'm highly suspicious.

Thanks

Erik

Weird. Bad news for guys in jail trying to get bailed out. Lol…