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Home Page/4 Community/Call 4 Action/Story

Call 4 Action: 9-0-# Phone Scams

Susan Koeppen Reports

Scam artists are targeting businesses through a phone scam, Call 4 Action reporter Susan Koeppen said.

Here's how it works:

Someone will call your business and say that he or she is from the phone company. The person then says that he or she needs to test the phone line and that you need to dial 9, 0 and then the pound sign.

If you do, that opens the phone line for the scam artist to make long distance phone calls. You, however, will receive the bill.

The scam only targets business phones where you have to dial 9 before you can make a phone call.

Verizon warns their customers to hang up.

"If you ever get a call from somebody calling you to test your phone lines, be wary because Verizon will never ask you to dial certain digits to test your phone lines. All of our testing is done remotely," said Lee Gierczynski of Verizon.

For more information on the scam, click here.

Copyright 2001 by ThePittsburghChannel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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