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Re: Area code 809 scam



A great little site to look up these sorts of things is
http://www.urbanlegends.com.  Type in a key work (in this case 809) and you
get more information than you ever wanted to know.  This particular one is,
in part, true.  From a link on the page:

Circulating on the net are dire warnings not to call numbers in the 809
area code, because these codes are part of scams designed to run up your
phone bill. The warnings are correct in that if you call one of these
numbers in pursuit of a "mystery shopper" job or information about an
"injured" relative, or you simply return a call to a mysterious number on
your pager, your phone bill will go way up. Not because calls to the 809
area code are billed at a higher rate than calls to any other area code,
but rather because you will deliberately be kept on the line while the
clock is ticking. So the warnings are right that you will get suckered,
just not about how this will happen.

e
------------
Emily J. Van
Anthropology & Archaeology Collections Manager
Luther College, 700 College Dr., Decorah IA 52101
http://www.luther.edu/~anthro
Not in the "809" area code :-)

At 05:55 PM 10/31/00 -0500, you wrote:
A similar warning was circulated in the Tallahassee area a few months ago.
if I remember correctly, there was also a write-up in the Tallahassee
Democrat, but I'm not certain.  At any rate, I think it's a genuine
scam--that it's real.

At 04:44 PM 10/31/00 -0600, you wrote:
>Have any of you heard anything about this?  Is it real or is it one of
those urban legends?
>
>
>
>
>Charles R. Schultz, CA
>Professor and Clements Archivist
>Cushing Library
>Texas A&M University
>College Station, TX  77843-5000
>c-schultz@tamu.edu
>979-862-1555
>FAX 979-845-1441
>
>State-of-the-art automation will never beat the wastebasket
>when it comes to speeding up efficiency in the office.
>Ann Landers Gem of the Day, July 27, 1994
>
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>

Tom Mueller

        "Do not read good books--
                Life is too short for that--only read the best.
                          And of these only read what gives you the
greatest pleasure."

                                                                Abbe
Dimnet, in
                                                                "The Art
of Thinking."

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     In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>