When you return home from an errand, a message on your telephone answering machine says that a relative of yours, no name given, has been seriously injured and has asked that you be notified. The message requests that you call back as soon as possible, and includes a callback number with an area code you're not familiar with. You return the call, only to find out later that you've called a number in another country. For each minute you're on the phone, you are being billed at rates many times higher than those of a typical long-distance call. This particular phone scam, frequently used a few years back, still works today on unsuspecting people. 

That's one example of telephone fraud, which targets seniors more than other age groups. Another example: you receive a recorded message that you've won a prize, and to claim it, you need only to call an 800 number, preceded by a two-digit access code that, unbeknownst to you, allows scam artists to charge your phone for future long-distance calls. Other schemes involve crooks getting access to your calling card number, which they use (sell) to make thousands of dollars of unauthorized calls. And there are the "cramming and slamming" schemes, in which your telephone bill is hit with unauthorized switching fees and charges. To learn more about the types of telephone fraud and the steps you can take to prevent it, you might want to consult AT&T's Fraud Education site at www.att.com/fraud/home.html 

Besides outright fraud, of course, there are also marketers' long-standing and relatively low-tech techniques of trying to sell you stuff you neither want nor need. The least popular of these techniques is the machine that calls you during dinner with a recorded message that pitches a product. To address the rising number of complaints these marketing calls generate, both California and federal legislators plan to establish "Do-Not-Call" registries, where individuals can, for a small fee, have their names listed. Telemarketing firms that contact someone on listed on a Do-Not-Call registry will be subject to fines. 

Unfortunately, these registries have created yet another scam opportunity, whereby fraudulent callers ask if you wish to sign up for the Do-Not-Call registry at a nominal charge. Once you've agreed, the caller then asks for personal information, including your Social Security number and a credit card number to which to charge the small registration fee. Both numbers are later used illegally. 

California's Attorney General will administer the state's Do-Not-Call program, which became law last year as a result of SB 771. California's program may be modified once the rules of national registry are known. There is also the possibility that California will not implement its program if the national "Do Not Call" registry makes the state's version redundant. The national program will be administered by the FTC, with a rollout later this year. 

For more information on the California program, go to caag.state.ca.us/donotcall/

Further information on the proposed FTC registry is available at www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/donotcall/index.html 

February 2003