There are a number of ways to get ripped off these days and many of them somehow involve the phone. We must constantly be on guard when answering calls or filling out questionnaires, no matter how harmless they appear to be. You can commit yourself to a great deal of grief by merely entering a contest, returning an inquiry received in the mail, or even calling a toll free number promising a free service which would otherwise incur a large per minute charge from a 900 number. An almost unlimited number of scams are perpetrated over the phone and people who prove to be vulnerable to this type of slimy attack are subject to many more such ripoffs as they soon populate hundreds of sucker lists which are sold and traded by the same creeps who scammed them in the first place. You must learn to recognize the patterns of these techniques and most importantly how to say NO and hang up.

We will touch on only a few of the torrent of scams used every day to bilk billions of dollars from otherwise savvy intelligent people. Almost anyone can fall for these seemingly legitimate offers and many times people are simply trying to be helpful, convinced they are helping the phone company or some law enforcement agency. Anytime you pick up a phone and hear the voice of someone you don't know, an alarm should go off. On some scams, you don't even have to answer. As long as an answering or fax machine picks up, your may be bait for some low life ready to pounce on any opportunity to grab a quick buck.

You are away from home and the phone rings. Your answering machine picks up and begins to deliver the message. The party at the other end of the line doesn't wait for the message to complete, but simply hangs up. The only indication you have that someone called is an unavailable entry on your Caller ID box. A few weeks later you find your long distance has been switched to Joe's 40¢ per minute - $50 minimum "Discount" service.

You answer the phone at work or your business and a person at the other end tells you he is with the phone company and needs to check your line. He wants you to dial a few numbers on the phone keypad so he can test the phone line. You do as he requests and think no more about it until you receive a phone bill containing a number of calls you didn't make.

A variation of the above scam is to receive an automated message saying you have just won a prize or discounted service and all you need to do to claim it is to dial 3 digits and an 800 toll free number to authorize the prize. You have just forwarded your phone to a long distance operator or dial around service. Now any number of calls can be placed on your phone bill by simply calling your phone number.

You receive a letter saying you MAY have just won a trip to Tahiti. Even if you don't win that, you are guaranteed of another prize. All they need is your name and phone number on the entry form. Without reading the fine print, you mail back the entry form only to find that you have actually signed up for some expensive service or switched long distance providers.

You notice some seemingly harmless service offered on TV and are presented with an 800 number you can use to avail yourself of the service absolutely free. You call the number and get your "free" service only to find a massive charge for a call to a 4.99 per minute 900 number service on your next phone bill.

You call a number to order or obtain information on a product or service you see advertised at an unbelievable price. It seems to be a US number with the standard 3 digit area code followed by a 7 digit number. A popular area code for this scam is 809, although there are many others. The person at the other end seems to want to keep you on the line as long as possible. There is a good reason, as he is making a percentage of the long distance charges you will pay. Many international calls can have US type area codes. Be careful.

You receive a call from a long distance operator saying that Bob is on the line and needs to charge an emergency call to your number. Bob is your husband, so you agree. You find out later that your Bob wasn't making the call and you have a massive charge on your phone bill for some stranger's freebie. He got Bob's name from the phone book and even if it only works on 1 out of 10 calls, he still pays nothing.

You receive a call from someone representing herself as an employee of your (take your pick) bank, credit card company, mortgage company, credit union, telephone company, etc. She tells you some story about a defect on your credit card, calling card, a Y2K glitch, a scrambled account number or any number of other excuses she will use to ask for either your bank account number, credit card number, social security number, calling card number, or some other personal information. I think we all see where this is going.

You make a call from a pay phone using your calling card. Next month's bill has unknown calling card charges of several hundred dollars. This is becoming one of the most lucrative scams around. Someone simply watches the numbers you dial and uses them for his own calls or more likely sells time to others on your card. Certain corners with pay phones have started to look like drug dealing spots with the commodity being discounted long distance calling. A thief with your number takes $5 from someone, dials your access number and PIN, then hands the phone over to his "customer" for an extended call worth $20 on the legal market.

We could go on and on. The scams are endless and the scam artists never stop devising new ones to get something for nothing at our expense. In addition to the types of scams mentioned, several other areas of criminal activity have been popular over the years. Some of these are what one might call "childish pranks" or phone phreaking and cost no one in particular, except the phone company and maybe all of us through slightly higher rates. Even young kids now know how to "call around" until they find the coveted prize for their efforts - someone else's dial tone. Although its heyday is over, red boxing or simulating coin tones on pay phones for free calls can still be used on some phones. The easiest way to get a sure dial tone is to simply clip on to someone else's phone line terminals or plug a phone directly into a phone interface, maybe even the one on the side of YOUR house.

There are some easy ways to protect yourself from most of these. You don't have to pay for services you haven't used, so simply checking your bill for charges that shouldn't be there and having them removed is a good defense. Place a PIC freeze on your long distance service so it can only be changed in writing by you. Don't ever give out any account numbers, calling card numbers, PINs, passwords or other personal information to anyone you don't know, and certainly never over the phone to a stranger using even a legitimate sounding reason for needing them. Don't call for "free" services which are normally sold at exorbitant rates per minute, such as entertainment or information services ranging from psychic readings, dating services, chat lines, adult entertainment, and even employment or business opportunities. If you are solicited by telemarketers for any service including charitable organizations, DON'T give them any money, especially by giving them a credit card or bank account number. Give any money directly to the charity if you wish to do so. Most of these telemarketing companies give a tiny fraction of the money (if that) to the charities they purport to be collecting for. Be very wary of faxes, answering machine messages, voice-mails, E-mails, and pages, requesting return calls to unfamiliar numbers. Never sign anything without reading it carefully. Do not sign or cash checks you receive in the mail from unknown parties or fill out contest entry cards without reading the fine print. Use your common sense and protect yourself.

Check out the other pages on this site for links and tips on protecting yourself from scams and unscrupulous telemarketers. If you have a scam you would like to report, please let us know by using the form below. It wouldn't hurt to report it to your local Attorney General, or proper regulatory agency either.

You may send a request for information or order any of our plans by simply filling out the form below. We can contact you by E-mail if you desire, although we actually prefer to speak to you directly at your convenience. We don't ask for any personal information over the Internet so just leave your name, phone number and the best time to call, or leave only your name and E-mail address if you don't want a return call. Leave any message you may have in the text box at the bottom and press the submit button. You are not signing up for any plan by filling out this form, nor are you obligated to accept anything if we call.

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Finally had to institute a spam protection scheme 
but it does not require mega-vision or audio files.  
Simply enter first 3 numbers and then 3 lower case
letters for a total of 6 characters in the box below.
Simply put the first 3 sequential single digit numbers 
(starting with 1) and then the first 3 LOWER CASE 
letters arranged alphabetically (starting with a).