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HURRICANE SEASON JUNE 1 - NOVEMBER 30
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click the logo to "listen live"
HURRICANE SEASON JUNE 1 - NOVEMBER 30
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NEWS SEPTEMBER 2010
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prison phone scam news story 02.05.10 kshn has reported on this type of scam before, but the Liberty Police Department has received a number of calls recently from citizens worried about Harris County jail inmates trying to get local residents to accept collect calls. according to liberty pd public INFORMATION officer hugh bishop, When an individual answers their phone, a recorded voice tells them the call is coming from an inmate at the Harris County Jail. If they accept that call and then realize the inmate is not someone they know, that recordings instructs the citizens to dial *72 and a series of numbers to reverse the charges. hugh bishop said Doing so doesn’t actually reverse charges; Instead, it forwards the victim’s phone. that allows a scammer to access your minutes and long distance. liberty’s public INFORMATION officer said Another version of this scam has the inmate saying something like, "Please help… I’ve been arrested for traffic tickets. I was supposed to pick up my children from school… this was my only phone call and I dialed the wrong number… Please dial *72 plus a plus a phone number for me so I can check on my children." Again, the victim getting the call has just forewarded their phone. officer bishop said If you receive one of these collect phone calls from jail and you don’t feel like anyone you know or care about is calling, just hang up the phone. If you think someone could be calling legitimately and you decide to accept the call but then realize it’s not someone you know, hang up the phone with out dialing the *72 instructions. You will still have to pay for that one short collect call, but it’s nothing compared to what would happen to your phone bill if you completed those forwarding instructions. hugh bishop said There are a couple of other possibilities for citizens to avoid being scammed by a jail inmate. You can contact your phone service provider and have calls originating from the Harris County Jail blocked. If you have been victimized by the *72 scam, contact the Harris County Jail at 1-800-984-8800. They can also block inmate pay phones from dialing your number.
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