The Ohio State Highway Patrol has come across what they believe is a "phone scam."
A Central Ohio woman received a call from someone claiming to be a law enforcement officer and asked her to call a number beginning with *72 followed by a telephone number.
This scheme allows the wrong person access to a lot of personal information including the person's phone number, the phone numbers they call, and their phone bill.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol says: "Star-72 is a custom call-forwarding feature. When a customer dials *72 followed by a telephone number, it activates the call-forwarding feature causing all their incoming calls to ring to the number dialed after *72. The scammer is then able to accept all collect or third-party calls on the customer's number while telling legitimate callers that they have the wrong number. The customer will get charged for all calls that the scammer accepts on the forwarded number."
The U.S. Department of Justice says that this scheme only works if the customer already has the call-forwarding option with their service provider.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol requests that anyone who receives a call requesting them to input a strange code into their phone should hang up and then immediately report the incident to a local law enforcement agency.
This scheme allows the wrong person access to a lot of personal information including the person's phone number, the phone numbers they call, and their phone bill.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol says: "Star-72 is a custom call-forwarding feature. When a customer dials *72 followed by a telephone number, it activates the call-forwarding feature causing all their incoming calls to ring to the number dialed after *72. The scammer is then able to accept all collect or third-party calls on the customer's number while telling legitimate callers that they have the wrong number. The customer will get charged for all calls that the scammer accepts on the forwarded number."
The U.S. Department of Justice says that this scheme only works if the customer already has the call-forwarding option with their service provider.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol requests that anyone who receives a call requesting them to input a strange code into their phone should hang up and then immediately report the incident to a local law enforcement agency.
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